The Emerican Odyssey
by Carlos68
Summary: "We as the Emerican people...bear the ark of liberties of the world." - James Maximilian Kaiser. What if Louise summoned James (OC) as her familiar? A secret political and militaristic mastermind bent on creating a new nation where freedom and equality is a reality. Rated T until further information.
1. Chapter 1: Familiar

Disclaimer: I do not own Familiar of Zero

Emerican Odyssey

_**Chapter 1:**__** Familiar!**_

-0-

Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière felt as if she was about to be suffocated under a lead blanket of pressure. Today, all of the students in the second year at the Tristain Academy of Magic would summon their familiar, as it was the first day of spring. The days classes had since ended, and all of the second year students had gathered in Vestri courtyard to perform the summoning ritual.

Louise had been purposely trying to appear as small as possible, despite already being one of the tiniest in her class. She tried her best to stay out of view of the teacher leading the summoning, Professor Colbert, however her long pink hair stood out like a sore thumb, making her near impossible to miss.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath as the second to last student approached the summoning circle, meaning that she would be next. All of her life she had been a failure of a mage, an embarrassment to the Vallière family name. Her sisters Cattleya and Eléonore were both triangle class mages, and her own mother was Karin of the Heavy Wind, a legendary wind mage, and former commander of the Tristain Manticore Corps.

Despite her perfect bloodline, Louise's magical ability was practically zero. Her classmates could perform the simplest of spells with ease, while Louise could only cause violent explosions, no matter what kind of spell she tried to perform. This earned her the nickname 'The Zero'.

Louise bit her lip when her classmate Malicorne successfully summoned an owl as his familiar, it was her turn now. It was time for her to fail yet again in front of her entire class, who she certainly knew were eager to watch and laugh at her pathetic attempts.

"Now, has everybody performed their summoning?" Colbert called out to the crowd of students, running a hand over his shining, bald head. Louise preferred his teachings over the other professors, his knowledge of the arcane arts seemed as if it was infinite at times, although he could be terribly absentminded and strange smells and noises usually came from his quarters, which were separate from the rest of the teacher's living spaces for that reason.

"Nope!" A sultry voice called out from behind Louise, who stumbled forward as the owner of the voice gave her a light shove. She whirled around, coming face-to-chest with the bane of her existence, Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst.

Louse glared up at the darker skinned girl. She had everything Louise didn't, a large group of friends, impressive magical ability, large breasts that drew the eye of every male in the Academy, and most recently she summoned a rare fire salamander as her familiar.

"The _zero_ hasn't summoned anything yet," Kirche taunted, giving Louise a conceding wink.

Louise growled and turned away without responding, and approached the summoning circle. As she approached, she couldn't help but overhear her classmates mutter to each other. Most had simply already figured she just wouldn't summon anything, while others speculated the weird creatures that The Zero could possibly summon.

"Are you ready Miss Vallière?" Colbert asked as Louise strode past him towards the summoning circle.

"I am," Louise nodded, drawing her wand. She took her stance at the circle, and held her arms outstretched with her wand in her right hand.

"_My slave who lives somewhere in the universe!"_

"_Oh sacred, beautiful and strong familiar spirit!"_

"_I desire and here I plead from my heart!"_

"_Answer to my guidance!"_

What resulted was exactly what everyone had anticipated: A sizeable explosion that tore up the earth, and sent dirt and pebbles raining down on everyone in the area. The smoke cleared, revealing Louise sitting on her bottom having been knocked over by the explosion, and no summoned familiar in sight.

Louise bit back the tears threatening to roll down her cheeks. Her failure had come as no surprise, but her classmates burst into laughter and teased all the same. She rose shakily to her feet, and prepared to try again.

…

"Just give it up already Zero!"

Louise whirled around, her torn and frayed cape fanning out around her. "SHUT UP FLOOD!"

"Excuse me!?" The girl in question, Montmorency Margarita la Fére de Montmorency, growled, her blond curls bouncing as she stomped her foot.

"Monmon, leave her be," Montmorency's boyfriend, Guiche de Gramont, whispered as he laid a hand on the blonde girl's shoulder. Guiche was also a blond, and wore a frilly white shirt instead of the Academy's normal collared white shirt. He was known around the Academy for his flirting and acting cool in front of the younger first year students, causing Montmorency to go into a jealous rage quite often.

Louise's latest attempt at the summoning ritual was her fifth, and from the look her teacher was giving her, it seemed it was going to be her last. Her clothes were now dirtied with soot and dirt, torn in various places to expose her milky white skin.

Most of the class had dispersed, with the permission of Colbert. The sun was now resting on the horizon, casting an orange glow on the few remaining students, which consisted of only Kirche, Montmorency, Guiche, and a short blue haired girl known only as Tabitha, who was watching the spectacle wordlessly and intently.

"That is enough Miss Vallière," Colbert sighed, worried that his student would soon fall unconscious from using all of her willpower. Judging from the way Louise was sweating, appearing slightly pale, and was having trouble standing properly, falling unconscious would come very soon.

"I have… to try again," Louise panted, falling to her knees and wiping her sweaty brow.

"And what good is that going to do Zero? If we wanted a hole dug in the middle of the courtyard we would have gotten a proper mage to do it!" Montmorency shouted from a fair distance away, out of range of Louise's explosions.

"Shut up!" Louise shouted back, her voice cracking. Tears began to spill down her cheeks as she gripped her wand tighter. She was the laughing stock of the entire school, the butt of every joke at the Academy of Magic, and this was the last straw. Louise had quickly become hysterical as she continued to fail to summon anything, twitching like a rabid animal with a maniacal expression crossing her face.

"I'll show you Flood!" Louise screamed at Montmorency, her voice cracking once again. "I'll summon the most ruthless, cunning and fearsome familiar, that'll have you on your knees begging for mercy!"

"That is enough!" Colbert interjected, looking stern and uncompromising. "I cannot allow you to do something so reckless when you're clearly about to lose consciousness!"

Louise whirled around and grasped onto the front of Colbert's long mages robes, shaking him as she spoke. "Mr. Colbert please! Once more!"

"No," Colbert shook his head. "You're only going to harm yourself."

"You have to, please! Just once more then I'm done!" Louise pleaded, more tears escaping from her eyes.

Colbert eyed her sternly for a few more moments, his suddenly piercing gaze making Louise feel like a bug under a magnifying glass. "Once more and only once more."

Louise nearly felt like hugging the man, but instead chose to turn around and take position at the ravaged summoning area. She began her chant, her voice no longer flat and mechanical like it had been before, now it was cracking with emotion.

_Founder please I'll take anything! _Louise thought mid-chant. _A blind dog! A three legged cat! A cockroach! The most evil and vile creature in the universe! _

When Louise was done the chant, an explosion came out.

"I knew it was another explosion!" one of the crowd said.

"Is everyone alright?" Colbert called out as he waved his wand to clear the smoke. "Louise, are you… okay…?"

Louise was, of course, unharmed. She was staring at her summoned familiar as the smoke was dissipating; the other students stared and Louise could not believe what had happened. "A human?"

It was no more than a young male teenager, standing at about 5'10 and having dark blond hair, he was wearing a black hoodless jacket, black jeans, and black smooth shoes of an unknown material and manufacturer. He looked like a commoner, a commoner with no magic, but he had a smooth black square bag strapped on his left shoulder like if it were some oversized man's bag. But the most distinctive feature about the teenager was his strange greenish spangled facewrap that covered his nose and mouth and drooped onto some of his shoulders and almost on his upper chest.

As the teenager seems like if he was disoriented briefly, the summoned human looked around, first at the summoning grounds, then at the strangely-robed students. Seeing robes and wands and oddly colored hair, most notably the pink-haired girl directly in front of him, he rubbed his eyes with his right hand before taking his attention back.

"W-who are you?"

He looked down at Louise when she snapped at him.

"Same thing." He shot back at her with the same question but much longer and in tone where he was just calm "Who are you? Where am I? How did I get here?"

One minute, he'd been minding his own business, enjoying a day off for once, and the next he was here…wherever here was. He shook his head and began to think about or assure what all just happened so far. "Okay, calm down, you're used to this by now. You somehow got transported somewhere by a weird little wizard girl…?"

Louise took to the offense. "Who are you calling little?"

"You're almost a foot shorter than me." He answered with. "I think you fit the bill."

Peals of laughter interrupted them, and the summoned young man turned to see the other magical folk were enjoying the show. One student said to another. "Leave it to Louise the Zero to summon a commoner."

"This makes your boasting worth it." He turned his attention to the dark-skinned, red headed beauty that spoke next, and stared at her with almost like a blank eye expression.

He turned to face Louise, whose embarrassment was mounting under the jeering from the crowd. Sympathy took the edge off his mix of feelings. "Look, I'm sorry. I just would like to know where I am, how I ended up here, and if I can perhaps find a way back."

Louise seemed intent on ignoring him, as she turned to Colbert. "Please Mr. Colbert, let me try again!"

"Uh, hey, I was asking a question." he said in his as always calm tone. "You guys are speaking English, right?"

It certainly sounded like English to him. He looked for Colbert, and his heart sank when he heard his answer. "I'm sorry, I can't let you."

"What?" Louise and her summoned human said together.

The latter pressed forward. "Why? I don't belong here?"

"This is a sacred ceremony to determine a mage's life. Redoing it would be a desecration of six thousand years of tradition. Regardless of whether you like it or not, he has been decided as your familiar spirit." Colbert explained almost ignoring the teenager who was still confused to what was going on.

"Oh great, me as a familiar. I'm not even an animal though." the teenager thought to himself mostly pondered and partially calm.

"But I've never heard of using a peasant boy as a familiar!" Louise exclaimed as more laughter erupted amongst Louise's dilemma.

Despite the repeated laughter of the students, Colbert took the laughter no further "I will not allow any exceptions, peasant boy or not. Continue on with the ritual."

Louise turned to the tall teenager and advised him "Be thankful for this. Normally a noble wouldn't do this with a peasant boy." She continued without giving the teen any time to reply, and closed her eyes with an air of resignation. She waved her wand in front of her, speaking as she did so.

"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, bless this humble being, and make it my familiar!"

She finished the chant, and reached up and touched the wand to the teen's forehead. She then, to the teen's surprise, awkwardly stretched upward and delivered a weak and chaste kiss to his lips. Louise immediately reeled back in the process of suppressing her embarrassment. The teen too was trying to suppress his embarrassment by keeping a straight face during and after the kiss.

"Very good," Colbert commented. "It seems Contract Servant had ended peacefully."

To the teen's bewildering to what just happened, he demanded to what just happened with annoyance without realizing he was speaking in one of his main secondary languages "Warten Sie! Was hat das Ding jetzt gemeint?"

All of a sudden, a searing pain struck the teen's forearm. The abruptness and severity of the pain stunned the teen for a second, and caused him to fall back onto his butt. He quickly grabbed his forearm to see a set of foreign symbols slowly engrave themselves down his wrist arm. The symbols to the teen kind of look like Hindi inscription to him, as the symbols took shape onto his right hand. Once the pain subsides, he begin to pick himself off the ground, slowly though, as he was unsure if any more pain would've brought down upon himself.

"_Was ...__zum Teufel__... war das__!?__"_ he ask in a daze, then quickly face-palm himself. He spoke in German, twice again, dammit, he realize as several people are now looking at me with curious eyes.

"Apologies for my outburst there, you may or may not be curious about my name, but my name is James Maximilian Kaiser. You can call me Max, James, or Kaiser. Whatever is easy for all of you." he mutter with an unintended German tongue roll on almost every R, as he fully stand up and try to dust off his black bag. It is now that he was fully aware just how many people are staring at him, and even more unnerving: the complete silence of them all.

"Explanation, please?"...he wished if he could have said that in a wordier manner. Although, it looks like he was getting his point across, as Mr. Colbert stepped forwards and presumably answered.

"You, young commoner, have just been summoned by Miss Vallière here to be her familiar. Those runes that are on your forearm, they are what signifies you as a familiar. Though I must say, I've never seen those precise runes before..." Colbert explains, lapsing into deep thought after finishing his statement.

"…dismissed yet?" the teen asked, prompting Colbert to leave behind his train of thought.

"Ah! Right. You are all dismissed." He exclaims, still retaining his curious and thoughtful look. "Though mister...James, was it? May I take a look, and possibly record, your familiar runes?" He asks, with the same intense curiosity.

"Close enough. But of course." The teen replied half welcoming in a partial mumbling tone, unsure why he wants to examine the inscription on his hand. I mean, it can't be that different from any other rune that he saw before, right? And so, James extend his right arm to him, allowing Colbert to record the writing, as most of the students file off the grass and into a nearby building. Meanwhile, Louise is standing just a few feet off to the side, tapping her foot and looking quite annoyed. He wondered why? Ah well, it doesn't matter now~

-0-

Well, what could he say that it was awkward as it was? Louise, without saying a single word, just marched me up to her room. He thought naught of it at the time, but when he and Louise entered the room, all that changed. He opened the door to find... a huge queen bed taking up a majority of the room, a dresser presumably full of Louise's clothing, and a small table with a candle on it next to the door... Not to mention the pile of hay down on the floor to the side of the bed. Judging by the lack of other furnishings, James presumed that that's where he was going to sleep. Seriously?

"Right then. You. Familiar. What's your name?" Wow. It's really that hard to forget his name? How hard it is for a francophone to pronounce his name? I suppose James can suffice...

"I thought I told you. If not, my name is James Maximilian Kaiser. You can call me Max, James, or Kaiser, or whatever feels easy to pronounce." James replied, reasonable with information as it seemed.

"Well, James, that is an unusual name of yours. And tell me, why do you speak so little? You are in the presence of nobility, and as such, I expect you to show your utmost respect to me." She says, leaving him to briefly ponder over the different of a commoner and a noble. And he couldn't say that he liked her tone. It's kind of grating...oh wait, she's waiting for an answer, isn't she? Better not delay too long. Don't wanna provoke her. She seems a little short-fused as it looked.

"It's not my first language, but I'm fluent in it otherwise." James commented, hoping that it suffices.

"Well, we'll have to remedy that, won't we?" She asks with a slightly evil grin as she pulls out her wand. She looked slightly evil. James shut his eyes and tune out his ears to prepare for whatever comes next.

BOOM

"_Ah__. __Aha__. __Das__war__nicht komfortabel.__Man könnte es__abgeschwächt__haben__eine Kerbe__.__"_ James manage to eke out, stunned by the sheer ferocity and power of the explosion. Wait, he spoke in German again, didn't he? "Apologies for once more speaking in my secondary native tongue." he said. He better remember next time. It's just so hard speaking in a secondary foreign language for such a long period of time. But why's Louise looking at him strangely?

"...Well, it seems to have worked, as I did understand that. And I can't really control my power. You should thank me, commoner. Because now, we can communicate without any barriers." She says, with that tone of haughtiness and superiority that I just don't appreciate. Oh well. At least he didn't have to care about language breaks anymore.

"...I think I'm going for a walk. I'm going to need some time to digest what just happened." he request, earning a small glare from Louise.

"If you're going out, then don't forget to take these with you! And make sure they're clean." She exclaims as she practically throws me a bag of presumably her clothing, prompting me to narrow my eyes. Seriously? Is _ZIS_ what he was going to be stuck doing?

"So, I'm supposed to go wash these things?" He asked as he peers inside the bag to find another of the uniform she's currently wearing, as well as some undergarments. _Definitely_ sounds like his kind of job...laundry sarcasm, if anyone's too dense to tell.

"Aren't you my familiar? It's your duty to wash, clean, and to do other mundane chores. And don't forget, when you return, I expect you to have my clothes prepared for the morning." She says, with a rather sharp tone that kind of was intended to cut his ears. He barely flinches not only at the tone, but also at the words. Okay Louise, seriously? He was summoned here, saved from death, to be a _slave_? He was grateful and all, but a _slave_?

"... Ich vermute, dass es meine Pflicht ist." He managed to eke out in German, before he abruptly turn and walk straight out the door.

-0-

James was currently holding a wicker basket filled with an assortment of garments that needed washing before tomorrow morning. Seems that to "earn" even the simplest of necessities, such as food and water, he needed to do the chores that his "Master" set him with. _"Man this was so unfair._ _But then, life isn't fair."_ he thought rarely bitter.

And thinking this brought him back to the situation he was in. While the earlier conversation with Louise had answered the 'what' and 'why', he still didn't know WHERE he was. Clearly it was somewhere a long way from home if the two moons were any indication.

_"Damn, this castle is huge." __James thought to himself half surprised and a bit pissed off._And this was no joke. James has been wondering around for a good ten minutes now, and was still no closer to finding somewhere where he could wash the clothes. Judging by the level of technology of this place, he was not holding out any hope for finding a washing machine. That meant he needed a wash basin and some warm water from somewhere.

While he was trying to figure out what to do in this situation, while wondering down yet another corridor filled with torches and large ornaments, he noticed someone moving near one of the large vases. Once he was close enough to get a good look, he noticed it was a young girl that was using a feather duster to clean the ornament. She was wearing a black and white French maid outfit, complete with headwear.

_Huh, she must be one of the cleaning staff here. I certainly can't see any of those others I've met bothering to help with the cleaning. _

"Excuse me?" James said politely as he approached her. She must have been highly strung, for she jumped slightly at the sound of his voice. She then turned around and stood straighter than she had been.

"Good evening, sir. May I be of service?" She asks with a deep bow towards me. Now this was a novel experience, and much better than the treatment he had seen so far. Still, he didn't feel right treating her the same way he had been.

"It's alright, and please, call me James. I'm not one of the...Nobles that are living here." he said. She rose from her bow and took a good look at him. She seemed to notice the unusual clothes he was wearing (Well, unusual to them...he thought his clothes are quite normal compared to an average thief) as well as the basket of female laundry in his arms. Now that he thought about it, a grown man carrying around a basket of women's underwear could probably be considered something to be wary of. Luckily, she didn't jump to the wrong conclusion.

"Ah, you must be the human Familiar that Miss Vallière summoned!" she said while a smile broke out on her face and her posture loosened noticeably. Seems she was used to having to keep up appearances around all the Nobles.

"Yeah, that's me. You may have saw me earlier, right? Because with all due respect, I don't remember you in the crowd." he said sheepishly. Of course, he was kind of too busy at the time to notice everyone that had been present at the time.

"Oh no, I was working in the Kitchens. But word of a human being summoned found its way around the castle quickly." James supposed it would, seems human Familiars were rare, probably because a human Familiar can tell their Masters to get stuffed if they really wanted. Even if they were willing to starve, at least.

"Anyway, I was hoping you could direct me to the washing area. I have these clothes I've been instructed to wash and I'm unfamiliar with this place." James requested.

"Oh, of course. Right this way si...I mean, James."

She turned and started walking down the corridor. He followed her, and soon they arrived at a room that was on the ground floor of the main building. The room was small, but had a large water basin in the middle with what seemed to be heated water kept warm by magical means. There were also scrubbing boards and soaps. The room was considerably humid from the large number of clothes that were hung up to dry.

"Here we are. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask." She said with a smile. _"Wow, that smile was a vast improvement to the scowl that was always on Louise's face."_ James thought to himself happily. "_In fact it's the first one I've seen since arriving in this big __ficken__statt__."_

"Thank you very much...err...well, I never did catch your name. Can you tell me your name?"

"My name is Schwanhild, sir." she replied happily

"Thank you, Schwanhild." At this she turned and left, leaving him to the arduous task of washing clothes.

-0-

Soon afterwards, James returned to Louise's dorm and placed the completed washing on the side in the room. Damn, that had taken a lot longer than he expected, especially due to the fact that he had to wait for the clothes to dry.

Looking to the bed, he can see that Louise had fallen asleep since he had left, and was snoring quietly without a care in the world. Funny how she could look so peaceful and cute while asleep, but strikes fear (and explosions) into the heart while awake.

Max looked around the room and quickly figured out something. _"Where am I meant to sleep?"_

With a sinking feeling, he came to realize the purpose of the haystack. It was not there randomly, cluttering up an otherwise accumulated room. It had been placed there as bedding for whatever familiar she got. Pity that that had to be him, oh well, it had to do.

But, Max wasn't going to leave the question about _'where he was'_ unanswered. So once again, he turned towards the door and sneakily exited through the door and closed the door quietly enough as he trekked towards the spiraling stairs at the end of the hallway. But he wasn't going to simply take a quiet stroll this easily.

He was about to proceed with an American folk song until he heard chattering just at the next few steps downstairs. Pressing himself against the right corner of the door frame leading out onto the next floor, he peer his head around the corner and noticed a familiar figure earlier this afternoon.

This figure was none other than that blond kid; Guiche Chevalier de Gramont. But how could James have guessed his name so easily? Oh, well pretty obvious of his girlfriend saying his first name. Speaking of girlfriend, the girl's name was none other than Katie. She had brown hair, and brown cloths. Yet again, James was obviously able to know her name by simply listen to what was happening so far.

"I'm good at baking soufflés." the first thing that James hears as he begins eavesdropping.

Guiche further commented "I would love to try one."

"Really?!"

"Of course, Katie. I wouldn't lie to your eyes."

"Lord Guiche!"

"There is nothing hidden behind my feelings for you." Guiche proudly said before he saw James passing behind Katie and greeting them as he passed by in a strange language "Guten Abend Guiche und Katie." Guiche was briefly speechless as he was trying to figure out what James said.

As James almost went into the next flight of stairs, Guiche further asked about James "Isn't that the peasant that Louise summoned?" Before Guiche could stop James, James was already going down the stairwell and was long gone from Guiche and Katie's sight rather quickly.

"In today's ritual?" Katie added to further in trying to understand. "It caused quite a stir among the first year students as well."

-0-

Moments later, James looked out on the night sky, with its two moons. He sat down on the courtyard, smelling the fresh scent of new grass and feeling the wind, but he couldn't help but feel slightly discomfited at looking at the strange objects in the sky. Not only was the moon so different, most of the stars were in the completely wrong places in the sky. The more he thought about it, he couldn't help but believe that he had been taken to an interesting place.

But there remained problems. After leaving Louise's dorm again for a second time, he managed to find the library within the heart of the academy. The library was huge; it had bookshelves leveling up to the ceiling, like a library in a castle. Despite the awe of the library's size of storing this many books, James went out to find any book that was on the geography. Overall, it took him a short while of 20 minutes to finally find a book on the geography. The reason why it took so long was because the library was dark. Well, it was clear that the library was closed, but that wasn't going to stop James from snooping all around the isles of bookshelves.

With his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he traversed his way to a nearby table at the back center area of the library. To his realization, the table was actually a desk. Behind the desk was another gigantic bookshelf, and strangely, there was a candle on the left on top of the desk still burning. Someone must've forgotten to toast the candle as they left, well, whoever did, must've been in a hurry. With the book in James' right arm, and his black bag hanging to his left, he went behind the desk and settled himself down to a fine wooden chair. Once seated, he put his bag to his left near the chair while he put the geography book in front of himself.

Even with the candle providing as the only light source, James didn't let the lack of light bother him from reading. Despite the darkness around him, James opened the book to a random page and found the continent of the world he was in. Many of the people he had met, and Louise, had names which he recognized from his days of learning medieval history in Junior high, and a glance at a maps showed that the geography was in fact fairly similar to Europe. But this country called Tristain was more like an oversized Belgium. James had no doubt the ruler of this land was some would be king, whom did nothing but play around with idle pursuits while subjugating people only for the sake of his own greed. It also appeared that those who could use magic were nobles, and they claimed their power through birthright. He idly wondered whether those whom the nobles called commoners in the same way that one talks of a roach were truly incapable of magic, or just didn't possess the means and resources to try in the same way that these nobles did.

Still, there were problems. He flipped the pages, stopping on a random sheet. It was unreadable. The language that these people spoke was similar out of a cross between Hindu and Mandarin inscriptions, but apparently they used a completely different alphabet. He would have liked to learn it. But for now, as obnoxious as Louise was to him, she would be useful. He needed information, and she provided an excuse for him to roam around this academy and learn as much about this country as he could.

Before he could get any more information furthermore, but he had to get something to keep him entertained while he read and studied each book he could get his hands on. So he unzipped his black bag and reached in before taking out his Crosley Radio Revolution CR6002 record player. Setting the black compact record player onto the desk, he clicked the record player open before he reached into his bag again for a good music disk. He had a reasonable collection of music; from American and German, primarily he was born as an American, but he primarily desired for more German music than American. That certain German music disk he found was Ludwig van Beethoven - Violin Sonata No.9 in A Major "Kreutzer". A 37 minute long music disk, James couldn't help to listening music from his German heritage.

Taking the compact disk by his finger tips, he slipped the disk gently into the open record player before closing the record player. Then with a gentle guidance of his fingers, he lowered the needle onto the disk with care before he pressed the play button on the record player. At first, there was the familiar sound of the fainted brief static, but then the music began with the intro of a soft violin. But moreover than the 200 year old music beginning to play, James put the music at a 40% volume; loud enough to deafen the entire library, but just not loud enough to hurt people's ears or be heard from outside the library. With the music giving a means of entertainment to prevent him from getting bored, he began to find another book in the library, a book about Tristain.

Going back to the same bookshelf isle where he found the geography book, he searched around the bookshelf in hopes of looking for the book about Tristain. But in order to find out if he's looking in the right section, he looked at only the titles of the books from the side. Before he knew as he looked around the section he got the geography book, he finds out that he is actually very close by to the book about Tristain. How does he know? Because he found a book about Germania as he looked up a couple shelves above where he found the geography book. Now, the name 'Germania' looked familiar to him. Well, the name 'Germania' is actually Latin for 'Germany', but he doesn't let the name easily fool him as if Germania has a German culture and society as he reached at the bottom tip of the book and gradually slipped it out of its place.

As he took the thick small book from its place, James placed the book about Germania between his left arm as he looked up again to see if he finds the book about Tristain. Sifting his eyes at the top shelf back and forth in a slow manner, his eyes slowly zeroed in on another familiar book that looked like the book about Germania. With instant curiosity, he reached up at the book in an identical fashion like how he got the book about Germania just right now. Using only his right hand, he slowly got the book out of its place and brought it down to himself. With the book in his right hand, the front of the book read 'Book about Tristain', just exactly what he wants. So with both books in his possession, he went back to the desk as the music was 5½ minutes in.

Going behind the desk and sitting back down again with both books now on the table aside from the geography book, he closed the geography book before he set it aside to the left as he slid the book about Tristain in front of him. Opening the book to the index (which is the last pages), he was primarily interested in Tristain's international affairs, specifically ongoing wars and/or political rivalry. Flipping to that certain page on Tristain's international affairs, James literally sucked himself into the information that the book offers. Tristain is a small country resembling to most of James' guesses just moments ago; modern day Belgium with a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is under threat from the floating country of Albion (that resembled a lot like the U.K. to James), because of a rebellion there by the people against the royalty. Tristain is home to a magical academy which attracts students from nearby countries known as the Tristanian Academy of Magic (which is where James is right now). The Academy is a highly acclaimed school for magical studies, where students gather to study the mysteries of magic. It even attracts students from Germania and Gallia. The main courtyard of the school is known as the Vestri Court (which is almost directly outside of the library as James recalled his last locations to himself). Militarily to James' standards of military forces back in his world, the country is weak, with only a small permanent force, which forces it to make marriage alliances with other countries (more like a micro NATO to James as he can peruse the fact of 'marriage alliances'). This mirrors the political state of the Low Countries on many occasions throughout history, in reality. The capital city is Tristania and is located in the northwest of Halkeginia, which seems to be pretty far away from the Tristainian Academy of Magic as James can calculate the distance of the capital to here from the geography book just moments earlier.

With enough information from Tristain besides the monarchy itself, James closed the book about Tristain and set it on top of the geography book as he slid the book about Germania in front of him and opened it to the index again. Opening the book to the index, he was indentically interested in Germania's international affairs and why it's all such a nuisance to Tristain. As he read the pages where it showed Germania's international affairs with Tristain, Germania is the largest kingdom in Halkeginia, and is also regarded as the strongest in terms of military might. Although its name comes from the Latin word for 'Germany', its landmass is much larger than it would be expected, and seems to also occupy where a lot of Eastern European countries (where primarily Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Slovakia would be) and Western Russia should be. It is regarded as a more barbaric and down-to-earth type of country, with its men being considered to be brutish. This parallels the Roman view on the people of Germania in reality. Germania is located to the northeast of Tristain.

But after the time-lapse of 32 minutes of studying, the music stopped on his record player and the disk came to a stop as it finished. Being transported into such a different world was mentally exhausting even for him. So with further action, he collected the books about Tristain and Germania and the geography book before heading to their shelves and placing them back into their original places. Although he was able to put the geography book back in place…close enough, he wasn't able to get the books about Tristain and Germania into their original shelf and places as it was slightly too high for James to push the books back in. So alternatively, he kept the books and went back to the desk and put both books into his bag and he closed the put the record player back inside the bag while in the process. Zipping up his bag, he slung it on his right shoulder as he got up from the chair. Scooting the chair back into the desk, he blew out the candle and headed back towards the doors that led out of the library. Once he left the library, he trekked back to Louise's dorm and fell asleep shortly before midnight struck.

-0-

The next morning, or just this morning, James awoke at the crack of dawn, only to see Louise still comfortably situated in the folds of her sheets like a small baby in their crib. He stretched from his haystack beside the bed, did a few squats, and examined the room again.

"Hey, wake up!" James said, pulling the sheets gentle away. She stirred, and sat up from her bed.

"Huh? Oh, right… Didn't I summon you just yesterday? She asked, picking up the clothes. She was silent for a moment.

"Familiar. Are you not forgetting something?" She looked at him expectantly. James gave Louise a puzzled look.

"Not that I can remember, I woke you up. That was the order wasn't it?"

"Clothes?" she said while donning an irritated look and crossing her arms.

"Oohh. I thought you were kidding about that." She continued to look at him with great distaste, as though he had just been rolling in mud. "Obviously not..." he grumbled as he stood and walked over to the laundry basket he brought in last night. He grabbed the folded shirt, skirt and tights and dumped them politely on the bed.

Louise rifled through the clothes before saying "Where's the underwear?"

"You can't seriously expect me to get those too?" he said with a raised eyebrow. Her glare was all the answer he needed.

"No, sorry I refuse. Most guys would get slapped for rifling through a girls' underwear drawer. Why exactly should I do that here?" In answer to this she picked up her wand again and pointed it in my direction.

"That's as good a reason as any." he said while raising his hands in a defensive gesture and turning towards the chest of draws behind him. After the third attempt, he found the draw full of the desired garments and grabbed a random pair. He took the pair out and closed the draw. Louise then stretched her arms straight out from her body and looked at me expectantly.

"Err...what are you doing?"

"Dress me." she said simply.

"Äh...was?"

"Dress me." she repeated.

"Are you out of your mind? A boy would never touch a girl!" he reasoned as he quickly asked a question "And you want me to dress you? What if you slap me?"

"Look, it's okay; a Noble never dresses by themselves if there is a servant present to do it for them." Louise exclaimed as if it were common knowledge in a partial calm tone. "Now come on, dress me."

"_Oh mein Gott,__das wird__peinlich sein.__" _James muttered with annoyance in his mind. He was given the audacity to dress a girl? This was going to be embarrassing as hell.

-0-

**Moments later…**

After a few minutes learning just how difficult putting clothes on another person, old-fashioned clothes to boot, is, James finally got Louise dressed and put in a sigh of relief.

"Well then, to breakfast, I suppose?" she offer, seeing how Louise is still not saying a word as she proceeded towards the door.

Once James and Louise were out the door, they went down the hallway and then walked down the stairwell that James used last night, and headed to the main hallway. Taking a left, they walked down a flight of stairs revealing a large mess hall.

"Wow, dieser Ort ist wirklich etwas…" James thought to himself. He looked at the tables, and they were filled with all sorts of meals.

He sat down by an empty seat, but he suddenly began to already figured it out.

"These seats are for nobles only, aren't they?"

"You're quite smart. Now hurry up and sit down." Louise said, pointing down.

James looked down, and a small piece of bread was lying on a small paper plate.

"Nun, es ist besser als nichts." James sighed in an unintelligible tone in German, sitting on the cold solid floor. As he settled in, he picked up the bread with his right hand and took a bite, and almost threw a fist in anger. The bread was stale. What was this? Sawdust bread that was used in the concentration camps of WW2? If so, this was so cruel to James as he can remember how many of those prisoners during that era were dying slowly by such food like that.

"Ausflippender Adligen…" James thought to himself in German to such disgust.

After finishing her meal, Louise and James walked out to the front courtyard, near where the summoning was held. James and Louise were both quiet for a while, but Louise started talking again.

"During a meal, familiars are supposed to be outside on standby. You're lucky to have sat next to me."

"Lucky? Oh please, getting bitten by a desert snake, only to receive bloat mark is lucky compared to this." James joked as Louise took no heed to his remark. A couple minutes later, they finally entered the courtyard, and the first thing that James noticed were some people sitting at tables, being served by maids and waiters.

"What's going on here, some special occasion or something?" James asked with curiosity.

"Kind of. There's no lesson today for second years; this is to start communication with the familiars they just summoned."

"Oh?" James heard a voice from behind that just came from out of nowhere. As Louise and James turned in a fast transition, James narrowly attempted to jump.

"What the? A Salamander! Und es ist ausflippt riesig!" James exclaimed in a 'Hitler-like' surprise rage, jumping back out of reflex. It was unlike anything he had ever seen on discovery channel on TV back in his world. In fact, the lizard was more mystical than that. The Salamander was the size of a crocodile, and had fiery red, bumpy skin. The end of its tail was on fire. As he further examined it, he noticed its short, stubby feet had talons. He then forced his gaze towards the source of voice. It was that red head girl she saw yesterday that he gave a blank expression towards her.

"Is this your first time seeing a Salamander?" She giggled with her tone of voice exotic and seducing.

"Well, no actually. The one's I've seen were 100 times smaller than that, and green to boot." James replied in almost a heavy German accent. The redhead laughed in response despite the nature of the harshness in German accents and dialects.

"Hey Louise, are you sure you just didn't grab a commoner that was walking by?"

"What are you talking about?" Louise muttered, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"Nein," James replied over Louise as he further provided her an answer "Of course she wouldn't. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here as her own servant to fulfill her needs."

"Good for you James. As furthermore to you Zebrest, you're wrong about my familiar, and you should just shut up." Louise said, clearly almost confident as she support James' own reply for her.

"Well, he's just fitting for you isn't he, Louise the Zero?" She laughed, walking away. Her salamander trotted behind its Master.  
"What's up with that girl?" Louise growled in a mumbling tone, clenching her fist in anger. She turned to me.

"Don't just stand there! At the very least, go get me some tea for us!" She scowled before walking away.

"Verdammt, sie wirklich braucht, um Wut-Management zu nehmen..." James mumbled in German to himself. As he walked around looking for some tea, a flash of purple suddenly raced past him.

"Whoa!" James yelled with a German croak at the letter 'a'. He stumbled back, only to find himselfself hitting something else, followed by a scream. He immediately turned, to see a maid with black hair and asian-like eyes on the grass. There was a small cake beside her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Swanhild." James apologized as he went down to help her up.

"No, it's okay, I'm fine actually." She smiled. Her voice was angelic, a clear soprano compared to Louise's shrill and angry voice. She noticed the cake on the floor, and reached out.

"Oh, it's okay, I got it." James said, picking up the cake for her. James stood, and then placed it back on the plate, when he saw her staring at his hand.

"Oh, it's you again James." Swanhild happily greeted him.

"Well, what a surprise that we would meet again?"

"Well, it's kind of weird that we run into each other in a short amount of time. And you know speaking of it, for a commoner to be summoned as a familiar is already being gossiped about." she replied, ogling at James, but at the same time trying to hide the fact.

"Really… to be honest though, the commoner-noble thing is a bit strange to me." James said sheepishly. She gave him a puzzled look.

"Well, Nobles are people who can cast Magic. Everyone else is a commoner. Don't you know?"

"Well, where I come from there are no nobles or commoners." James said. _Let alone magic…_

"Oh really?" She seemed intrigued by that.

"Yeah. Well, what about you? What are you doing here?"

"I have been blessed to serve here. My name is Swanhild in case you would forget in future reference; I'm just a commoner like you."

"Well, if so, I'm James Maximilian Kaiser in case you would too might forget, but with all due respect. Nice to meet you again." James greeted.

"Hmm, James… that's a peculiar name, isn't it?" she started, but a voice called out to us.

"Hey! Is the cake still not ready?" It was that pretty-boy Guiche again. He was sitting with another girl; a blonde with curly pigtails. I knew it! Player...

"Oh, yes right away!" Swanhild called out, but I held the plate out of her reach.

"It's okay; I'll bring it to him."

"But that's been…"

"It's okay…its fine for that stuck up moron." I mumbled, walking toward him.

"Here you go sir." I said, placing the cake in front of him.

"Oh, also bring me more tea." He said. Shortly, James walked away, but stayed close enough so where he could hear and speak to him.

"Your familiar is quite cute, isn't he?" Guiche said to the blonde. A black spotted maroon frog hopped from her head and onto the table. The girl giggled.

"You're as flattering as ever." commented the girl.

"Well, I cannot tell lies in front of your eyes."

I clenched my fists in anger. _Playing with girl's hearts, you two timer…_But then the girl's expression grew solemn. "But recently, I heard a rumor that you're also dating a first year…" she said slowly, keeping her eyes on her cup. Guiche stiffened.

"Wh-what nonsense! There cannot exist-"

"Any deceitfulness to my feelings toward you, right?" James concluded while shoving words in Guiche's mouth, walking up to the table again. They turned towards James as he came to view.

"W-what are you-" Guiche started, but James cut him off.

"Oh, I understand now. The colors represent different grade levels! Black being second year, and the girl last night wearing brown was a first year! So that's how it is…" James said. The girl then turned to him, suspicion clear in her eyes.

"What's he talking about Guiche?" she started, but Guiche stood up.

"Hurry back to your duties, server!"

"Sorry, but I'm not a server." James claimed.

"Y-you're Louise the Zero's-"

"Thank you very much for last night! Well, see you." James said laughing.

"Hey Guiche, what was he talking about?" The blonde demanded.

"Ah, you see… I told you that last night…" James' voice faded, his gaze placed on a confused first year holding what looked like a soufflé. As James walked up to her, he heard him yell in panic. James grinned, ready to teach him a lesson.

"Master Guiche… Where could he be?" said the first year, looking anxiously for him.

"Guiche? You mean that guy with the other girl over there?" James said, pointing to him.

"Ah! Master Guiche!" she squealed, as she ran up to him. James followed behind. James definitely wanted to see this.

"K-Katie!" he said, immediately letting go of the blonde. "Hey, there," he said casually.

"I've been looking everywhere for you, Master Guiche!" she said. James saw the blonde girl's eyes change to a glare.

"This is going to be good." James muttered with enthusiasm.

"This is the homemade soufflé I was talking about last night. I thought it would be the perfect day for a tea party!" she exclaimed.

"O-oh, why thank you thank you..." Guiche stuttered. Sweat poured down his face, and the edges of his smile shook.

"Last Night?" The blonde girl asked.

"O-oh, yes well, you see…"

"Oh thank goodness for you. You were saying how you really wanted to try it right?" James smirked, cutting in. Guiche's head turned sharply.

"Y-you!" he said with shock.

"What, it's the truth isn't it? James said. His head darted back and forth between Katie and the blonde girl.

"Guiche, what is the meaning of this?" the blonde demanded.

"W-wait, what are you talking about? You're creating a superfluous misunderstanding between these girls." He said, as everyone gathered to see the commotion.

"What's going on?" one person asked.

"It seems Guiche is starting something with that commoner familiar!" said another. Soon, everyone was around.

"What misunderstanding? You brought it on yourself you two-timer!" James exclaimed and spoiling the truth. Guiche gasped and his whole body freezing with fright. We have the Jackpot.

"Two-timer?" Gasped the first year.

"So you were putting your hands on this first year!" She growled, and started emitting off serious steam.

"Y-you're mistaken, Montmorency the Perfume!" Guiche said, backing away. "Please do not contort your rose-like face with anger! This is some mist-"

"How awful of you! You said we were together!" the first year cried, tears springing into her eyes.

"In any case, both of you please calm down-"

"YOU LIAR!" they both cried at the same time. Then, Montmorency followed up with a slap to his face, and they both stalked off as everyone else laughed at Guiche, who fell hard on his back in despair.

"Haha, you got dumped Guiche!" one cried.

"Excellent, now maybe I have a chance with Montmorency", a second-year boy said gleefully, running after the retreating figure of the blonde.

"Well, it was your own doing." said another, as James walked up to him.

"This is what you get for playing with girl's hearts pretty boy!" James affronted as he accidentally makes the crowd laugh. His face quelled with not just anger, but also a bit some fun out of it.

"It seems you do not know the etiquette towards a noble…"

"Well, too bad for you, I wasn't raised in a place where nobles exist!" James countered as he used the first amendment to defend himself.

"Very well…" Guiche said, grinning.

-0-

**Author's notes: Before I end my share of words, I like to spoil a couple notes on the story.**

- I do like to apologize for putting so much detail and shifting Point of Views with James into this chapter because without it, it would otherwise make the story fast-paced and extremely hasty with the lack of detail. Additionally, I don't want to make this look like I abruptly thrown this together.

- Now, about Schwanhild in the story, let me explain things for a moment. If you were to think about it while watching Familiar of Zero; if Saito is present, then there would be Siesta since both Saito and Siesta are both Japanese. I thought about it for a moment during the making of this chapter and decided to mash things up. If James was to be present, then Schwanhild would make her appearance since both she and James are German. Furthermore, I apologize for catching some of you guys off guard when Siesta wasn't present in the story because if this very reason. Kind of logical isn't it?

**Anyways though, thanks for reading, if you **_**guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story, please leave a review if you can. Until then, farewell.**_


	2. Chapter 2: Duel

Disclaimer: I do not own Familiar of Zero

Emerican Odyssey

_**Chapter 2:**__** Duel**_

-0-

"A duel huh?" James asked with defiance.

"Precisely, I challenge you to a duel! For a person who statuses as a commoner and familiar, it seems you do not know your place! To disgrace me, and moreover make two ladies cry!"

"I would add that they were pretty pissed. Take it from me pal, you just aren't girl material. How about a nice pony instead?" James purposely joked, with everyone laughed.

He clenched his teeth in anger, and pointed a rose at James. A rose…? How melodramatic could you get?

"You better prove that resolve! I'll be waiting in the Vestri court!" he said, and stormed off. As he did, Louise walked up to me, eyes flashing dangerously.

"What do you think you're doing?" she exclaimed, grabbing James right hand.

"What? I only did to him what he deserved."

"It's not the matter of what! To foolishly accept a duel like that, what were you thinking?" shouted Louise as she dragged James out of the courtyard. She's actually pretty strong, to be able to pull him at this pace...but not for long.

"I was thinking about how I was going to kick his ass. Where are you taking me anyway?"

"Were going to apologize to him. If we do it now, you may be forgiven."

That made James stop and to loom tall over Louise's short stature. Louise was abruptly pulled back by James' sudden stop and she looked back up at him before she grabbed his right arm with both hands.

"Hurry up-" Louise started, but James violently pulled his right arm away using a sideways elbow move that countered Louise's tight grip and sending her half a foot backwards before landing on her butt.

"I refuse." James said coldly, cutting her off. Louise looked at him strangely before he continued. "Why should I apologize to a guy like him? If anything, I need to knock his ego-centralized, obnoxious and melodramatic brain back into place. Something is seriously wrong with that guy's head." James preached in a cold confident tone, shaking his head.

"You really understand nothing! A commoner can't overcome a noble!" she yelled.

"Noble this, Noble that, it's always like that for you isn't it? Did it ever occur to you that even the greatest of men fall once in their life?" James asked before his voice got colder and scarier but calmer especially when he further said "Every man has his weakness, even god has his weaknesses."

"There's a first time for everything, and I'm going to be the first to show that brat, and all you spoiled nobles that skill is what dominates, not your status!" James shot back in an even colder tone that had a German dialect to it to fuel the fear emitting from within his voice. Louise took a few steps back, strangely discouraged at my words. James stormed past her as his footsteps silently drove him forward, walking up to the nearest person.

"Where is the Vestri Court?"

"Oh, it's right over there actually, near the front gate."

"Thanks a lot." James replied, walking away.

"J-James!" Louise called out, following him.

"Wow, what a sight!" One exclaimed as James walked by.

"A commoner challenging a noble?"

"I wonder what will happen?"

"Let's go see!"

"So you decided to come. Well, I compliment you for not running away." Guiche answered in the silence.

"Is flapping that piece of flesh you call a mouth all you can do? Come on, let's get this party started!" James announced rudely like if he was going to start mob. Guiche's eyes narrowed and the Nobles around us began to murmur amongst themselves. Guiche then lifted his wand.

"Wait!" James heard Louise call out. James turned like in a blink of an eye, seeing her walk between us.

"Guiche, stop this nonsense, it's forbidden to duel!"

"What's forbidden is a duel between nobles. This is not so. He is a commoner, so there is no problem." he smirked.

"B-but there's never been anything like this before…" Louise replied, casting her gaze towards the floor.

"Louise, could it be that… you're worried about your familiar?" he taunted. She shook her head violently, her face becoming flustered.

"Who would? Besides, how do you expect me to watch my familiar get…" she couldn't quite finish as James grabbed her from behind with only his right hand and catching her off surprise. With Louise only taken by surprise by only a second, James lifted Louise off the ground for the same second before he tossed her at the crowd of nobles. In equivalent surprise, the nobles that got hit by Louise's body were responded with gasps and many shortly alarmed comments.

Everybody was shocked to see that a commoner like James can simply lift a Noble and throw them out of the way like that. Just disrespectful isn't it? But on James' face, his face was presented with a pair of cold eyes and cold blank expression that also gave people the belief that he has no remorse. And without anything to stop him, he began in his cold and calm tone like earlier "Now…without the pest in our way, let us begin. Shall we?"

"Hmph, well whatever you have to say, the duel has already begun!" With that, Guiche waved his rose forward, letting a petal fall. Louise walked forward at the front of the crowd as she recovered, and a flash of light came from the petal. James only closed his eyes when the light shined. As the light faded quickly and his eyes readjusted, a suit of armor as tall as him stood before the crowd, holding a spear.

"My name is Guiche the Bronze. Therefore the Bronze Golem, Valkyrie, shall be your opponent. With that the battle shall-" Guiche started, but James cut him off as he took his bag off and set it down before he somewhat gently kicked it off to the side.

"Oh for crying out- you really are a noble aren't you? Yeah, do a summoning; get your lackeys to fight your battles for you! Be a pansy and hide behind your golems!" James shouted in disgust as he had his arms extended out low. Guiche's eyes dilated in anger, and he pointed his rose at me. Following its orders, the Golem charged head on, and threw a punch.

As the golem charged at James, James made a right parry and stepped to the left side of the golem at the same time and drew a Blackhawk Garra II knife which James used in a swift left swing at the golem's neck. The swing was successful at making a nasty slash mark at the golem's right neck as James spun and made a viciously upward slash at the golem's right elbow. With the golem's right elbow severed, the golem froze in an unchanged expression as James ducked under the golem's right arm and delivered a direct stab to the golem's right knee and kept pushing the knife forward to the point where the golem is sent toppling forward and flipping the golem upside down on its back. At the same time as the golem toppled forward and completed a flip onto its back, James returned himself in a kneed position as the knife droved out of the golem's knee as the golem flipped onto its back. With the golem's lower leg severed from the knee as it flew off in the process of the golem's flip, James posed in a single leg kneel position with his head partially down and with the knife in his left hand being held from behind while his right hand was in a straight palm with his upward thumbing facing his face. As he posed, the severed lower right leg flew pass Guiche's head and landed behind the crowd before it smashed into a hunk of twisted bronze. Guiche looked back at James who was still posing as he and everyone else was left in a surprised silence. Looking back up in a swift head lift and opening his eyes, James smirked as Guiche stared with astonishment on his face "Are we done warming up yet?"

"D-Do not take me so lightly commoner! I still got a lot more than you think!" Guiche yelled as he let another rose pellet fall to the ground and spawn another golem. The golem stood erect from its spawn point with a battle brutish facial expression of his helmet. This one was armed with a spear and shield.

In moments, the golem charged at James again but only to meet as another failure. James stepped to the side and stopped the spear using his knife that was pointed down on the other side of the spear while his right hand was in a flat horizontal palm that was under the spear. Stopping the golem in its tracks, James stepped forward and bent the golem's elbow in a nasty upward angle that further broke the golem's right arm. Then as James pulled the golem's right arm and spear back, James let go of the spear as he pulled it forward and let the spear spin in the air at the crowd behind him. The nobles ducked for cover as the spear passed through the crowd and imbed itself into the grass just in front of the crowd.

With the golem leaning downwards from the pull of its right arm, James quickly ended the golem with spin and a back slash to the right side of the neck and then a finishing reverse spin roundhouse kick to its head. The bronze head flew in the air at a shallow trajectory before landing on the ground and rolling to the feet of Guiche. Like a royal traitor beheaded from the guillotine of the French Revolution, the headless golem fell forward with its shield still on its left arm leaving Guiche further astonished with fear this time.

"How did you do that?" He didn't wait for a response when the James began advancing on him with his rage becoming visible. In emergency response, swinging his rose, Guiche summoned three more golems armed with halberds. Stopping in his tracks with a small cloud of dust forming in front of James, he kept a rough smirk on his face to hide his rage and his uncertainty to the 3 golems. His mouth couldn't be seen to show everyone his smirk, in which his rage and uncertainty actually started to show. And in a blinding move, he simply relaxes and stood there with something a little different. As he stood there with the golems about ready to charge at him, James grasped the blade of the knife with his right hand and kept the knife low like what he did in his left hand.

As soon as he relaxes again, the golems begin charging at him and closing their distance with him in the blink of an eye. But at that very moment, he slipped another Blackhawk Garra II knife from his left sleeve before he did the most unexpected move that he could pull off on everybody. As soon as the golems closed the distance at about a yard, James stood sideways with his right shoulder facing the golems and he threw the knife in his right hands at the center golem's right upper knee. With the center golem left immobilized, James charged and jumped forward at the center golem as it begins to fall over. Stabbing the golem in the area would the jugular vein would be on the human body, James jumped away from the center golem in time while slipping the knife out of the center golem's knee with his left foot before the golem fell over.

With the knife in the knee already traveling at a high velocity at the left golem, James jumped at the right golem as it turned its head to confront James but was too late to react in time. The right golem is struck with a knife stab to the forehead as James landed on top of the golem while the left golem is left paralyzed from the knife coming straight at the upper right leg, James used this chance to pull the knife out of the right golem's forehead and throwing the knife into the left golem's left eye. The left golem in shock from the knife in the upper leg and the eye, stood there for a moment before it fell over to its left and lay on the ground lifeless on its back. Getting up from the right golem, James stood up and walked over to the left golem and bent down to take out the knives from the golem's left eye and then the right upper leg.

Pulling the knives out in a calm slow fashion, James was giving off a false sense of victory for himself as to fool Guiche into thinking that he is tired. And to James' luck; it's working. How can he tell? Because as James snaps his knives closed and hides them in his sleeves, Guiche wasn't in the mood to play fair at this point as he retained a confident but a nervous smirk on his face in order to hide his fear. He swung his wand wildly and spawned his last two Valkyries, one with a sword, and one with a nasty looking battle axe this time.

Crossing his arms as he saw the golems charge at him, James preceded with his bamboozle tactic. As soon as the golems were about ready to swing their weapons at James, at the last minute, James turned sideways with his back facing the right and at that same moment, he swung his right arm out and there went the Blackhawk Garra II knife from his right sleeve and traveling straight at the right golem's nose. With a knife to the right golem's nose, the left golem with the sword kept going as it was met with James stepping his left leg to the right and swinging his left arm back and then forward as another Blackhawk Garra II knife came from his left sleeve and counteracting the golem's leftward swing. The golem in response tried to do a rightward swing but ends up getting blocked as he attempted a downward swing but to have it blocked again. But this was also where the end comes for the golem in the blink of an eye.

In an unexpected maneuver, James lifted his left leg up with his lower leg still pointing down, and then with leg still bent like if a front kick was about to be done, James whipped his entire left leg into an arc and smacking the golem's sword out of its hands. In the time of this kick, it took James only a second to do the entire kick and return into his original position. And upon returning into his original position with the weaponless golem in front of him, the sword had spun a few times as it traveled offset to the golem's right and imbedding the point of the sword into the ground and narrowly almost killing Louise as she was sitting on her butt when she tripped and with the sword narrowly being a centimeter close to slicing her in half like a pie. As to complete the final blow, James extended his left arm with the knife in it and impaled the golem under the chin as he faced his back to the left in the direction where the sword was swung. With his right hand behind his back as he impaled the golem under the chin, after a few moments with complete silence, James took the knife out of the golem's chin and remained in the same position as the golem stood up for his last few seconds with his hands under his chin before he fell on his knees slowly and falling to the left of James on its stomach.

With the last golem lying on the ground lifeless, James kept his left arm bent with the knife still point upwards where he had stabbed the golem. The crowd was left in a duped and flabbergasts silence to even say a single comment as James turned his head to Guiche who was left frozen in a horror-struck state as his hands were imperceptibly shaking from what just happened. Guiche's face was slowly turning sweaty and red with more fear. He was only a dot mage, and had used most of his willpower on the seven Valkyries. He was unable to summon any more, but he might just have enough willpower for one more move. His last solution was for him to runaway; therefore, he began to back away only to have a knife be thrown to the back of his lower leg after he took a few steps and turning his back to James. Falling on the ground on his stomach and dropping his wand, he smacked his face onto the grass which further forced him into fear as he began to indiscernibly whimper as he tried to crawl away.

But for James, he showed no further mercy as he went over to the right golem and briskly took out the knife quickly in a tranquil approach as he close in and loomed over the whimpering Guiche. And before Guiche knew it before he could even get into the crowd, James planted his right foot on top of Guiche's right knee and further increasing Guiche's pain and increasing the noise of his whimper. "I-I-I b-beg you, spare me…please! I accept and admit my submission!"

But however, to his horror, James ignored his begging and proceeded with a few cold words in a German accent "Were enough to blame where it is too much to approve to with devotions to visit eternal sanction you assured the devil himself."

"Please accept my submission!" Guiche tried begging for the last time as his voice was deafened from his whimpering.

"Spare the sickle." James said as his last words to him with a deep cold German accent as he brought his Blackhawk Garra II knife up to the left side of his neck and then almost about to swing down and throw his knife into Guiche's forehead when a shrilling plead from Louise stopped James "Familiar!"

Both duelists turned their heads towards the voice, seeing Louise pointing the sword of the last golem in both hands at James to stop him from executing Guiche. James can tell that her grip was weak as it was being held a low position with the blade facing almost straight up at James' chin. As for James, he wasn't in the mood for a little master to manipulate him for not killing his master's rivalries. So as a sign of disrespect, James proceeded with a similar crescent kick that he used against the last golem and knocked the sword out of Louise's hands and to the left into the stone wall that surrounds the Academy. With so much aftershock from James' crescent kick, Louise fell backwards and slightly to her left as she fell onto her right side and shoulder. Dazed and caught off guard by James' crescent kick, James loomed over Louise as he further exclaimed his disrespect to Louise "How such the dignity for you to stop your familiar from ending your rivalries? It's both such a sad insult and a sin for this to happen. It's no wonder everybody calls you Louise the Zero; you're indecisive and too imperceptibly forgiving. And all for what?"

His voice kept the crowd silence as he walked slowly away from Louise (who was still dazed from the kick) and after a moment of eerie silence, he turned his head back to Guiche and spoke his true final words to Guiche as Guiche was almost about in a crouching position "To those you served, you're life, means **NOTHING**!"

As James said the word '**Nothing**', James pulled his right arm back and threw the knife at Guiche's forehead and killing him as the ending execution for his haughty and two-timing deeds.

-0-

Malicorne rested his face in his hands, letting out an exasperated and defeated sigh as he witness the execution of Guiche.

He, Kirche, Tabitha and Katie were all on top of the outer wall of the Academy and had been witnesses to the duel from afar. Malicorne had used a simple wind spell to allow him to see farther, and had been giving the group details on what had been happening.

It was safe to say none of them believed him at first, until Tabitha began using the same spell to also spy closely on the duel, and all of them had clearly seen the James' knife be thrown in stab itself into the forehead of Guiche. They also were able to hear James' last words to Guiche and it struck terror and fear into the crowd and even people in the distance.

Tabitha was strangely the first to have the strength to speak since Louise was left in a daze on the ground behind James' feet. "Very dangerous."

"Y-y-y-yes," Katie gulped as she began to whimper from witnessing Guiche's execution under the hands of James, who had feared for Guiche's life, despite his two-timing.

"Ugh!" Kirche groaned, pulling at her hair as she began ranting like if she was some 'she-Hitler'. "This just raises more questions! Who is this young man? To basically send such insulting dialect into his words?! What is he, some kind of thief or rouge!?"

"K-Kirche!" Malicorne exclaimed, glaring at the redhead. "Don't speak about thieves so loudly! What if someone hears? The palace would have the school searched in every location if they heard there was a thief or rouge!"

Kirche raised an eyebrow as she continued with her rant. "It's impossible for a thief or rouge to get into the school. Otherwise, he would've been long gone a long time ago yesterday."

"Whatever!" Malicorne growled in a hushed tone. "What I'm saying, is that we can't just go about claiming Louise's familiar to be a thief or rouge!"

"We'd need proof wouldn't we?" Katie offered, pulling her cloak around her. "I don't think a thief would agree to be a familiar, wouldn't it just… k-kill everybody?"

"Not necessarily," Kirche began, holding her elbow with one hand while the other tapped her chin.

"Something else," Tabitha spoke quietly, holding onto her staff with both hands.

"You're right," Kirche smiled, laying a hand on Tabitha's shoulder and giving the girl a small shake. "It's something else entirely, and I want to know what."

"Well can it wait until some other time?" Malicorne groaned, stretching his arms out to his side. "I don't know about you, but if I don't get a proper amount of sleep not even Cubasil will be able to rouse me."

"Yes, we all have classes in the morning," Katie agreed with a deep frown.

Kirche pouted, "Oh fine, we'll resume this tomorrow!"

-0-

Back in the Headmaster's office, Colbert had explained everything he knew to Osmond about the familiar summoned by Louise. About the strange runes that had appeared on the man's hand as proof of the contract, and that when he had done some research, he had come across something rather shocking.

"The Founder Brimir's familiar Gandálfr?" Osmond asked with a raised eyebrow, examining the sketch of the runes closely.

"Yes," Colbert nodded, having taken a seat across from Osmond. "The runes that appeared on the man's hand are exactly the same as the runes that were inscribed on the legendary familiar Gandálfr."

"So, your conclusion?"

Colbert cleared his throat. "That man must be Gandálfr. This is quite the news is it not?"

"Certainly the runes are the same," Osmond nodded slowly. He then furrowed his brow in thought.

"What shall we do Old Osmond?" Colbert asked, looking troubled. "That man may be Gandálfr, but… there's something about him. It's had me on edge since he was summoned."

"Indeed there is something odd about that man," Osmond commented, stroking his beard.

"Shall we report this to the palace, Old Osmond?" Colbert inquired.

Osmond shook his head, releasing a small grunt. "There will be no need for that."

"But Old Osmond! This could be the biggest discovery of the century, a modern day Gandálfr!"

"Mister Colbert. Gandálfr was no ordinary familiar."

"I am aware. There was never any description of its appearance, but it's said to have been created specifically for the purpose of protecting the Founder Brimir during his spell incantations."

"Indeed. The Founder's incantations were especially long. However, that made his spells very powerful. And as you know, mages are most vulnerable while spell casting. Gandálfr was the familiar that he used to protect himself during those times of vulnerability. Its strength…"

Colbert interrupted Osmond, looking excited. "It could annihilate an army of one thousand all by itself! Ordinary mages were said to be no match for it!"

"So, Mister Colbert."

"Yes?"

Osmond narrowed his eyes into slits and leaned forward. "I want you to keep a close eye on this man. I fear there is something dangerous in the Academy."

-0-

**Author's notes: Before I end my share of words, I do like to make an apology to the death of Guiche in the story. It would be rather too typical and plain for me to follow the original way of dueling Guiche.**

**Anyways though, thanks for reading, if you **_**guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story, please leave a review if you can. Until then, farewell.**_


	3. Chapter 3: Goodbye

Disclaimer: I do not own Familiar of Zero

Emerican Odyssey

_**Chapter 3:**__** Goodbye**_

-0-

It had been seven full days since James had executed Guiche by a knife to the head, and in those days, Louise has been tortuously putting her familiar to what she had deemed 'appropriate use'.

James was currently hunched over a fountain in one of the Academy's lesser used courtyards washing Louise's underwear after the sun had set. Anybody else would have flatly refused and most likely would have kicked up a fuss over the issue and then get away with it, but James had no choice but to be forced to take the underwear as instructed, and be further force to leave Louise's quarters.

To James, this was considered unfair and completely unnecessary for him to clean her underwear. To his further protest, he felt like the American people in pre-American Revolution times; limited freedoms and rights, combined with also unfair taxes and control over the British Empire. He was feeling like this in a similar way; his freedoms and rights are being stripped of him by the days, and also his status as a normal person is deteriorating by the hour as Louise constantly mentally tortures him with so many errands every day. But on the third day, these errands are actually being used to his advantage to begin an escape plot out of this academy.

At the current time being however, James was having some trouble on how to properly wash Louise's delicate underwear. A chance encounter with the maid he had met a few times, Swanhild, had quickly remedied the situation. James had simply requested help in following its master's orders, to which the young maid had agreed with a few giggles. After all, what everyone doesn't see about James is that he is a fountain of knowledge. Human anatomy, mechanics, physics, and engineering were merely a few of the topics James was an expert on. But other subjects that he knew primarily on were mainly politics, ranging from the ancient Greek democracy and the Roman Republic to the Third Reich of WW2 and the Communist Dictatorships of the 20th century and their legacies in the modern world. It was the mundane things that James was not very knowledgeable or reliable at. He was a normal German-American teenager that was already a citizen of the USA, not a slave doing laundry or errands - this completely violates every aspect of the amendments of the American Bill of Rights and the scripts responsibly written by the founding fathers of the United States of America.

"And that's pretty much all there is to it." Swanhild grunted as she stood up from her position next to James. Throughout these days after Guiche's execution, James considered Swanhild as the only person that had feelings towards him and where he can interact without mental violence. She was also a person where he can somewhat trust to talk with, and he was using this as another advantage for some help.

"You know Swanhild, as a few words for me to share." James began as he piled the laundry neatly and getting Swanhild to make a confirming 'hmm?' sound as a way that she is listening "Have you ever heard of the American Bill of Rights?"

Swanhild gave James a slightly confused look before she responded "No, not really. Why do you say that, what is it?"

James was about to lift the basket when her reply made him say something to her before talking about the American Bill of Rights "Well, let's sit down first before I continue."

Swanhild nodded as she went to the right of James and sat down on the edge of the fountain and as he sat down on the edge of the fountain too before he began. As James and Swanhild sit down, there was a moment of silence before James continued "The American Bill of Rights; they guarantee and define the writing in the rights of American citizens that the government can't take away and may not ignore. It places limits on what the government can do. And the people who answered listed all the rights that are guaranteed. And the following listed are 10 rights written within the Bill of Rights;

Number 1: The Government can't make any law about any religion, or stop them from practicing any religion, or keep anybody from saying whatever you want, or publishing whatever you want (like in a newspaper or a book). And the Government can't stop you from meeting peacefully for a demonstration to ask the government to change something.

Number 2: The Government can't stop people from having and carrying weapons, because they need to be able to defend themselves from the enemy.

Number 3: People don't have to let soldiers live in their homes, except if there is a war, and even then only if the Government has passed a law about it.

Number 4: Nobody can search your body, or your house, or your papers and things, unless the Government can prove to a judge that they have a good reason to think you have committed a crime.

Number 5: You can't be tried for any serious crime without a Grand Jury meeting first to decide whether there's enough evidence for a trial. And if the jury decides you are innocent, the government can't try again with another jury. You don't have to say anything at your trial. You can't be killed, or put in jail, or fined, unless you were convicted of a crime by a jury. And the government can't take your house or your farm or anything that is yours, unless the government pays for it.

Number 6: If you're arrested, you have a right to have your trial as soon as possible, and the government can't keep you in jail without trying you. The trial has to be public, so everyone knows what is happening. The case has to be decided by a jury of ordinary people from your area. You have the right to know what you are accused of, to see and hear the people who are witnesses against you, to have the government help you get witnesses on your side, and you have the right to a lawyer to help you.

Number 7: You also have the right to a jury when it is a civil case (a law case between two people rather than between you and the government).

Number 8: The government can't make you pay more than is reasonable in bail or in fines, and the government can't order you to have cruel or unusual punishments (like torture) even if you are convicted of a crime.

Number 9: Just because these rights are listed in the Constitution doesn't mean that you don't have other rights too.

Number 10: Anything that the Constitution doesn't say that Congress can do should be left up to the states, or to the people."

Swanhild was astound and overwhelmed to all this information said to her about the American Bill of Rights. As in a way of understanding what James told her, she asked a statement in way that she can understand it "So it's kind of like a…a document that is held by the Government that ensures the civil rights of people. Correct?"

"Of course," James replied proudly as his voice became harsh to why he had asked the question "The reason why I ask about if you know about the American Bill of Rights is because the nobles in this world ignore and violate all these rights. Meaning, they do not care in the whole world that everybody including man should be equal. Because equality brings order and peace within a nation, while nations without equality let their people suffer within their nation, especially commoners like me and you, and so many others who are poor and are suffering."

James paused for a moment before he sighed in disappointment before he continued "It's kind of sad that we both have limited freedoms, especially me."

"W-w, why do you say that?" Swanhild asked confused and a bit understanding to what James said.

"You didn't hear about Guiche's execution?" James asked partially surprised to Swanhild as she gave a sideways nod meaning 'no'. He then continued about the Guiche's execution and to his decreasing freedoms in the form of a lie.

"Well, after his unknown execution, I was put to the fault for his execution because they claimed that my blood was on his hands when he was executed. And so, Louise and a few others were put in charge of putting me line, even thought I haven't did anything. And it seems that more of my freedoms and my choices get taken away by the days so far."

"I'm terribly sorry to hear that." Swanhild replied in supporting James dilemma before there was a moment of silence.

Just as Siesta was about to continue, something had got James attention real quickly and sucked all of his attention to the left instantly. Surprised, Swanhild looked at James, and followed his gaze to the other side of the courtyard. In one of the many openings of the lower level of the hallway leading to the tower of Fire, sat Flame. The familiar appeared to be trying to remain unseen, however its flame tipped tail and constant emission of sparks and embers ultimately caused it to fail. Upon noticing it had been spotted, the salamander croaked loudly, and scurried off into the darkness on the other side of the hallway.

"W-what was that a big lizard?" Swanhild asked with wide eyes. "Was it a familiar?"

"Yes it is." James answered with a tinge of his cold tone coming out "And that salamander belonged to one of those people in charge of what I should do besides Louise. It's Kirch's familiar." After James replied, he stood up and picked up the basket of laundry before he started walking at a brisk pace with Swanhild struggling to catch up.

As it entered the next courtyard, James took almost instant notice that Kirche`s familiar was nowhere to be seen. This particular courtyard was the between the Fire and Earth towers, and also housed the Servant's quarters which was a fair sized wooden building that hugged the side of the main tower with only a few feet to spare. Other than the Servant's quarters, there was nothing notable.

That is, until James noticed a bright red head of hair poke around from behind the said Servant's quarters. James instantly knew that it was Kirche, and had suspected she would be still spying on him. However, what he almost didn't expect was the speeding ball of fire that shot from Kirche's position and into the direction of the basket of underwear James was holding. In response, he threw the basket in front of him in the direction of the fireball and dived to this left while rolling to avoid the explosion of the fireball. The resulting explosion destroyed the basket and sent flaming undergarments flying into the rising darkness, quickly burning into blackened ashes and fluttering to the ground like burnt leaves.

James briskly brushed off the dust off his black bag as he stood up and face into the direction of where Kirche's fireball came from. As he stood up, he turned his head towards and Swanhild and told her a warning "Swanhild, get out of here as you can. It's best where you can get to safety and not get hurt in this situation."

Swanhild seemed to agree fully as she nodded vigorously and dashed away into the courtyard that she and James had just been in moments ago. James then turned its full attention back to Kirche, who was now in the open with a small group of students around her consisting of Tabitha, Montmorency, Malicorne, and Katie.

"What will you do now?" Kirche asked, her voice laden with seriousness. She raised her wand at James causing the others in her group to do the same, although Guiche seemed quite hesitant. Kirche bit her lip as the machine remained silent, simply opting to stare at her silently.

"Well?" Kirche spoke again, thrusting her wand forward a little. "Tell us who you are."

James remained quiet and stern with a serious blank expression at everybody as if he was wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. And so as in addition to his silence, Kirche merely sneered to threaten James "What are you going do? Louise has already entrusted us to watch what you do. You have nothing, nothing but your knives and your…fancy fighting gimmicks. We have magic and…"

"No once you have wands and magic, and the hopes of when you attempt to cast a spell and you are no longer standing, cause if I am," James interrupted cruelly and cold in a calm tone before he finished "You all would be dead before you have cast another spell."

"That's impossible!" Kirche snarled with a tinge of rage from her voice. She additionally could've sworn to herself that she heard a couple clicks from James as he stood there.

James remained silent with his eyes scanning over each member of Kirche's little group that had decided to confront him for the possible chance of not doing what he is doing. James can calculate it to be a likely response to what he had done to Guiche. The students desired a revenge of some sort, and appeared to be relying in strength in numbers; kind of like how the Communist soldiers were fighting the Nazis in the defense of Russia in WW2.

Then, without any distinction, he suddenly spun around on its heel and began to walk away. Since he had kept his word, his instinct had told him to retreat briefly and deceive Kirche and her group. Kirche's group was quite flabbergasted at his response, but they weren't about to give up easily.

"Monmon! Katie!" Kirche bellowed. She didn't specify an order specifically, but James knew that it was only logical that they had planned this in advance.

The two mages in question stepped forward and uttered the same incantation, causing water to squirt from the ends of their wands like it was coming from a garden hose. At the last moment, James slung his bag off his right shoulder and threw it behind him in the air as he dashed up to the pillars of the hallway and literally wall jumped off of them and jumped off of his bag and gained an altitude of 19ft in the time-lapse of 4 seconds for him wall jumping and then jumping off his bag.

With the water from Montmorency and Katie 10ft underneath James, James was gaining distance real quickly and he had to make a fast choice of attacks, because actually; he's not going to almost literally kill another mage, but just knock them out unconscious. So the first thing he did, with his hands stretched out like a bird while he was in the air, he swung his left arm back where it's almost grabbing his neck and then swung it back to throw out his Blackhawk Garra II knife from his left sleeve towards Tabitha who was to the right and behind Kirche. Tabitha saw the knife but miscalculated where the knife was going; when she expected the knife to hit her in the head, the knife actually went for her upper left leg joint and rendered her immobile and causing her to fall down without a sound. But in the same throw, the knife had actually scarped a couple hunks of flesh off of Tabitha's right fingers.

In a similar manner for his right sleeve, he pulled back his right arm and swung it back forward for his other Blackhawk Garra II knife in his right sleeve to come out onto his right hand and he twisted the knife upward as if was going to slash someone with it. With the intention of slashing someone, that someone was Kirche. Like an ordinary army, if you wipe out the leader of that army, the army will disperse in panic and confusion because of no one giving the commands and leading the army. Kirche was the leader of her own army.

As quickly planned, James came down at Kirche and made a deadly leftward downward slash across her body that was going to truly hurt in the morning. In the process of the slash, his beginning of his slash began on Kirche's right upper arm (mainly her bicep) and then went across her right breast and then down to where her stomach and the right side of her large and small intestines would be. The resulting slash was an upside down reverse L-shaped slash that had a curve at the bottom part of the L. And the further physical result was even gruesome; Kirche was almost knocked out unconscious before she hit the ground and dropping her wand and using her left arm to cover most of the L-shaped slash that was spilling blood out slowly from the nasty slash.

But if you think that slash was nasty, James was up to nothing better as he landed and turn to the right while he was still in a crouching position and made an upward slash through the center of Malicorne and upward just before the bottom of the neck and leaving a slash mark from the bottom of his chin. The starting point of the slash didn't start at the bottom of his pants, the slash actually started from above his fat belly button and stopped almost at the top of his ribcage before the knife left a tiny slash mark underneath his chin. But that wasn't all; as soon as the knife in James' right hand was extended all the way with his right arm; James advanced with a reverse spin medium roundhouse kick and knocked Malicorne out of the way on his left side and leaving Malicorne unconscious with a central slash wound left on his body.

With two targets confirmed out of the way, James side jumped to the left and spun around in time to see Tabitha still on the ground on her stomach and he sent a downward punch onto of her head and knocked her unconscious as she had his other knife in her right hand. And with the step of his right foot, he flipped the knife out of her weakened hand and sent it dangerously flying upwards and James catch the knife in his open left hand and sarcastically thanked Tabitha who was unconscious in a mumbling tone "Thanks very much."

With only two targets left, James attempted to intimidate Montmorency and Kaite with an aggressive Kung-fu crane stance as to somewhat cause an unconfident feeling from Montmorency and Kaite. But despite for both women, especially Montmorency, they were not going to easily surrender to his skillful moves.

"Y-you commoner! Why won't you just tell us what you did?!" Montmorency growled as she tried to not lose her bravery "We are not so easy to kill you know! Face us!"

"It's easily evident that you're both growing unconfident about how to approach me. Why not just surrender and I can forgive you two like nothing happened here?" James said as a deceivingly advice to both women.

"Never! You cause the trouble first!" Katie growled in a similar way as Montmorency. And speaking of similar to Montmorency, they both tried to make a co-op water blast at James but it to was about to become an instant failure. The first thing that James did was put his right foot down and then blindly charged towards the water blast before doing another of one of his most unexpected moves.

He jumped forward but not completely straight, he actually jumped a little offset to the right and spun while gaining a little height of 2ft and then using his spin, he threw his left knife at the left shoulder of Katie and caused the water blast spell to cancel while it was half-way complete. Almost getting himself wet from the weakening water blast, he landed completely offset to the right of the slowly trajectory of the water blast and threw his right knife into Kaite's right upper leg to not only make her immobilized, but also to make her chance of falling unconscious from the blood loss higher. Without Katie to continue the water blast with Montmorency, James back-flipped over where the water blast had last been fired and then front flipped and spun like a drill as he smacked Montmorency on the left side of her face and knocked her completely unconscious from the strong impact of James' straight right leg kick.

With almost everyone knock unconscious from James' counterattacks, James only had Katie still moving and he had to finish her some way without killing her (in some way to knock her out like everyone else). So as he turned his head to the right and seeing Katie on her knees trying to attend to the knife imbedded in her right upper leg, James though of a simple way to do this. He walked to the right side of Katie and all he did was chamber his right leg and does a right roundhouse kick into her face. By doing this, he sent Katie backwards onto her back with a faint grunt from her as she lie on the grass on her back finally unconscious. As Katie lie lifeless but still alive, James saw the other Blackhawk Garra II knife in front of Katie's knees and he calmly picked it up and clipped it into its closed position and hid the knife back into his right sleeve before he bent down to the other knife in Katie's upper leg and did the same thing as he did with the other knife.

With no targets left, James walked back to his bag that was near the pillar separating the courtyards and he picked his bag up before heading bag into the courtyard he was just in just moments earlier with Swanhild. And without the basket of undergarments for Louise, he wouldn't know how to explain this without a reason or something. And because he had knocked out 5 mages, his reasoning wouldn't protect him as anybody who saw the scene would have the misconception of thinking that he had purposely attempted to or successfully murder 5 mages. And so the only solution he can do, is remain silent and hide from the scene.

If he were to runaway and remain into hiding while on the Academy grounds, he had to isolate himself and ignore social connection or communication with anyone. But Swanhild was going to be a problem, as she can be almost everywhere on campus. But besides Swanhild, there was something else that bothered James…but not for long. It was when he looked back at the scene again that something told him that he had to do something to the bodies. And by doing so as he stood there for a few moments, he walked back over to the unconscious bodies and first attended to the most important figure of the group; Kirche. And since she was on her back and with her left arm on top of the L-shaped slash (which was having blood slowly ooze out from the slash), James lifted her in a bride carry and left her sitting down against the wall of the main Academy building. After Kirche, he went to Malicorne's body and likely dragged him instead of lifting him because of Malicorne's obesity and weight that made it not possible for James to carry him. Like Kirche, he sat him down against the wall of the main Academy building before going over to Tabitha. And with Tabitha, he put her left arm over and behind his neck and began to carry her in a similar way he was carrying Kirche's body with the rest of the bodies. Laying Tabitha down on her left side as if she was laying down, he went over to Montmorency and Katie and began dragging both of them to Kirche, Malicorne, and Tabitha's body. In a hurrying state, he laid the two unconscious women next to the right of Malicorne's body as if they were taking some sort of nap or something.

However, to his luck, he wasn't seen moving the bodies of Kirche and her little group as he took off running away from the scene and back into the courtyard he was in with Swanhild moments earlier.

-0-

The following 4 day later, James was having one of those rare good days, the night before he had danced with Louise. James and the nobles were celebrating, along with the school, the successful capture of the rogue criminal that had been terrorizing Nobles. Even after Kirche and her little group failed to dictate him, he was lucky enough that their wounds caused them to forget what they were trying to do to him that day. And during the following 4 days, James had finally understood why Louise would talk about nobility so much. It was to cover her own shame; during his battle with the Earth Golem he had finally seen what pained the proud pinkette the most.

After using what was known as a SMAW (Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon), a weapon he had only used during his time playing video games, he had finally defeated the bothersome Golem and its creator. With the Staff of Destruction, or SMAW as James knew it, back in the hands of the old Mage Osmond things had started to look up for Louise and her familiar. Though James felt a shot went through his heart when he learned that there has been other scenarios with summonings bringing things from his world. As much hope as that brought him it was soon destroyed when he learned there was no way to send him back.

James couldn't help but shiver as he touched a cold stone that made his bed. He let out a mumble as his complain before hearing the doors of Louise open with such force that the teen's thought an attack had commenced.

"Father!" Louise yelled as she sat in her night gowned and looked at an elegant looking blond man, with him stood six of his personal guards.

"James!" Louise yelled when she saw her familiar be slammed into the wall of her room by her father's magic. James was unable to slide his Blackhawk Garra II knives out of his sleeves thanks to the speed and expertise of Louise's father.

"So this is the failure you brought onto this world. You should have informed me about this sooner daughter." The blond and handsome man said with a tone of dissatisfaction. How dare such a man would say something like this? James' rage was exploding throughout his body as if he was like a nuclear bomb already going under a nuclear detonation.

"Get dressed, I am going to fix the mess you got yourself into." The man said before slamming James into another wall. Louise cried with pain as she saw her father threw James out the window. But James was to f***ing smart for that to happened as he was able to throw both of his knives out of his sleeves and imbedded them into the wall outside.

"Vallière!" Osmond said, entering the room in rage making the high level Duke turn to him. "I agreed to allow you to take your daughter and create a new contract with a familiar of your choice. However I need your agreement to you committing murder on my school grounds."

"He was only a commoner... there is a hundred...Ahhhh!" The man yelled in pain as he found the sword Louise bought stabbing through his leg. He fell to the ground clutching the wound that was brought to him from the sudden flying sword.

"Fick Dich!" James yelled in German as he fell to his death. He had used the last of his strength to throw his partner as the grip in his knives had slipped and couldn't hold him up longer. He knew he could have killed the man but he didn't want to bring more pain to Louise.

"Father!" Louise yelled as she saw his men rush him to the medical room.

"I can't see him!" One of the guards yelled as they looked through the window while hopping to find the one that had hurt their master.

"Louise you are to join me and your father in the medical room." Osmond said as a light smile formed on his face. Though he had complete authority he had felt that the Duke was willing to fight him, if it would get him to lay off the fact he had hurt a worthless Commoner. The Head of the Academy couldn't help but feel a wave of pride fill him since the young man had injured the powerful noble, while once again showing that magic didn't make a person unbeatable.

Nobody noticed Derflinger vanished from the floor, after one of the Valliére Personal Guards removed it from the Duke's leg.

-0-

The wounded German-American hid at the other wall of the Academy, crackling and opening and closing his blood riddled hands. The fall from Louise's bedroom was high, but thanks to some thick bushes below, he managed to survive the fall as if he just fell in water. As the guards roamed the inside of the Academy grounds to find him, James gritted his teeth at the memories from Louise and so many others: the constant beatings from misunderstood situations, the abuse, the damn explosions, the negligence, and the slavery. The only fun times that they had were the ball in celebration of capturing the terrorist. Other than that, he's been on the receiving end of the whip every time he made a mistake. And then the most ridiculous and enraging fact that her _Father _came in and started to beat the crap out of him for being a _commoner_ familiar to Louise.

'Warum bin ich immer verprügeln für etwas, was ich nicht getan habe? Das ist so unfair! Zuerst habe ich von diesem chibi Magier gerufen wurde, dann bekommen verprügeln für etwas, was ich sagte, habe herum wie ein Hund gezogen...ugh!' James thought angrily like Hitler in 1945, gritting his teeth at the humiliation Louise put him through.

"Nun, nicht mehr! Ich bin durch mit dieser Adel-is-more-than-kraftvollen Bürgerlichen crap! Ich werde zerstören dieses System und eine Zukunft aufzubauen, wo wir Bürgerlichen als Gleichberechtigte behandelt werden, und nicht wie Sklaven!" he growled, before limping into the dark forest ahead and shouting out another sentence as he disappeared "Lassen Sie die Emerican Traum wahr!"

-0-

At the Castle of Tristan, Henrietta was accompanying the Queen on their breakfast of the day, when suddenly a messenger burst through the doors, making the inhabitants of the room jump in alarm.

"Your Highness! My Queen! I bring urgent news!" panted the messenger, exhausted due to his running.

"What's wrong? Why are you in such a hurry? Surely there's no news that can be urgent as you say." said the Queen, confused at the sudden intrusion.

"Duke Valliére entered the Magic Academy and attacked her third daughter's familiar." said the messenger, causing Henrietta to stiffen at her seat.

"Why would Duke Valliére do such a heinous thing? And to the familiar of his daughter no less?" asked the Queen, confusion replaced by frigid demeanor. She hated any form of violence within the Kingdom, and she has heard of James' victory and capture of Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt.

"It seems that the Duke thought that Lady Louise had shamed him by summoning a plebian as a familiar." said the messenger, now shaking slightly by the dark aura that enveloped Henrietta after she had heard of James' unfortunate encounter with Louise's Father.

"James is NOT any simple plebian! He is the most noble of all men. He is a hundred times manly than the nobles!" roared Henrietta. She had met with Louise and her familiar before Fouquet stole the Staff of Destruction. From what she observed, he dressed in a unique way but has an air of an honest man. No one in their right mind would want to fight him, because of his headstrong determination to protect his master from harm, even if he got injured in the process. "What of the Duke who attacked the Familiar?" she added coldly.

The messenger flinched, so did the Queen. Never in their whole lives have heard Henrietta, the heir to the throne, the kind-hearted friend of Louise, ever spoke in such frigid manner. It almost as if the Henrietta has been replaced with a dark double.

"I-i-i-it's t-t-t-the D-d-duke of t-t-the V-v-valliére Fam-m-mily!" stammered the messenger. That did it. Henrietta became so furious, that even her own mother, the Queen herself, can't do anything about it.

"SUMMON DUKE VALLIÉRE IN HERE IMMEDIATELY! I DON'T CARE IF HE HAS A MANICURE PROBLEM! NOBODY ATTACKS JAMES AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!" roared Henrietta, as the messenger bowed, then scrambled on his way out, tripping along the way.

The Queen was stunned. She always thought that her daughter was a sweet gentle girl, but after James had saved her from the falling debris during Fouquet's assault on the Academy then, the successor to the throne always admired James for his selfless act and bravery against overwhelming odds, while enduring his 'punishments' from Louise (The pink-haired girl gave her report on her familiar, which is filled with complaints on how James always get flirted with the maid Siesta, or being flirted with Kirche, or for being in gruesome acts of almost murdering people). After talking to James during those times when Louise gave her report, he would always become very violent in his own defense and reason, while adamantly denying any of those things, saying it was only an accident by reason, and his Master misunderstood everything. Henrietta, on the other hand, would have found James' attitude to be one of the many traits as to be a well trusted guardian, but the violet-haired princess had her pride as an heir to the Kingdom of Tristan, so she would try to help James subtly, escaping Louise's horsewhip 'punishment' attacks. The Queen would guess this is one time too many, and her daughter's strain had cracked against protecting the Plebian Knight.

-0-

Back at the Academy, at the infirmary, the duke was furious that the plebian managed to escape. He thought that then fact that he's a commoner, though Louise protested otherwise that he's not, shamed him that a noble managed to summon a plebian as a familiar. Then word reached his ears that the Princess of Tristan had summoned his presence before her. Thinking that she have heard of this disgrace, he thought that he'd persuade the Royal Family to hunt down the plebian and kill him for this humiliation.

How wrong he would be in this situation. The duke had full authority and every right to put down such a dishonorable peasant in his act of defense. But it was too late to fix it if he were to regret his actions for attacking James. Because with the bloody already spilled on his hands and on Tristainian land, James was already embarking on his Odyssey, of brining a nation alive. A nation that would follow through the people's bill of rights, equality, liberty and freedom, where everybody no matter if they were superior or not, were classified as all man to be equal. And as a nation, it would become only one and only one thing that would become…an Emerican dream, coming…alive.

-0-

**Author's notes: Before I end my share of words, I do like to make an apology for the more straight forward writing that got closer to the ending, I was running on too many ideas of how James was going to begin the Emerican Odyssey and I had to switch to one more act that would make him create a new nation.**

**Anyways though, thanks for reading, if you **_**guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story, please leave a review if you can. Until then, farewell.**_


	4. Chapter 4: Meine Kämpfe

Disclaimer: I do not own Familiar of Zero

Emerican Odyssey

_**Chapter 4:**__** Meine Kämpfe**_

-0-

**Ten days later… **

It has been ten days since Louise's father had eliminated James, and it has put a real setback and inflamed almost all of Tristainia in such an act like this. With James' name and whereabouts to be unknown, the Army tried everything in their effort within the territory of Tristain to find James, but only to end in an inconclusive halt. In an unexpected total units lost in this time-lapse, 21 troops were confirmed missing, while 14 of the most elite troops were reported missing with their bodies never found. Among the casualty report, 18 other troops are reported wounded during the manhunt; with this amount of further casualties, the Queen gets Henrietta's orders to get them to return and stop the manhunt for now.

With the poster hanged on the wanted list of every corner of Tristainia, words from the people didn't have to serve to support the poster; the death toll was high enough for the people to take action into finding James. But they only had one big important problem; James' true appearance is unknown and unconfirmed. This meant that nobody knew who he truly was and they couldn't confirm someone if it were truly him or not since he had changed his name a slight bit and almost constantly. Because of that, everybody besides the army was on alert and open for James and in any attempt to know his name. If the people were to be able to find out what James real name was, then a possible proposal of another manhunt could be able to be started again with the some clues of her last traces of her works. But for now, the manhunt had to be put on hold in order for the government to focus on handling with the very one responsible for attacking James.

-0-

**Castle Tristainia, Queen's Throne…**

_"You did WHAT?"_

_The duke had a smug look on his face, despite the injuries thanks to James stabbing his leg with Derflinger. "I have rid of my daughter's disgraceful familiar. This...James, as he is named...no doubt a common plebian...he had dared to try and tricked my daughter into believing that she had summoned that disgusting dog. No doubt shaming the Noble name of Valliére." he said haughtily._

_"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT IN ASSAULTING A HUMAN BEING! WHAT GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO ENTER THE ACADEMY AND ATTACK A FAMILIAR? YOUR OWN DAUGHTER'S NO LESS?" roared Henrietta, throwing her scepter to the ground in front of the duke. She then went towards him...and slapped him in the face._

_"But your Highness, that familiar is a plebian and an embarrassment to the Valliére Noble Family!" reasoned the Duke. Big mistake, as Henrietta began emitting a sinister aura, and directed it to the idiot noble._

_"So you are saying that it's because of his blood that you decided to try and execute him? Is that it?" said the princess a little sweetly. The guards around them started to sweat a bit. The last time the princess used that tone on someone, they ended up in a place far worse than nightmares. But the Duke didn't notice._

_"So you're saying that this should be encouraged?"_

_"I'M SAYING THAT THIS IS A RARE THING! SUMMONING A DEITY FROM THE SUMMONING REALM! AND YOU CALLED THIS PERSON A PLEBIAN?" The enraged Princess spat venomously in his face, her indigo eyes burning with hatred. The Duke's eyes went wide with fear, summoning a deity from another realm is considered sacred, and since her daughter just summoned this ple- no, this being as her familiar, and he attacked him, there would be consequences._

_He had no idea how grave the consequences of his actions have occurred._

_"YOU WILL SPEND YOUR TIME IN THE DUNGEONS AS PENANCE OF YOUR ACTIONS! YOUR HOUSE WILL COMPENSATE FOR THE DAMAGES THAT JUSTIFY YOUR IDIOTIC ACTIONS! JUST BECAUSE YOUR DAUGHTER SUMMONED A NON-ANIMAL FAMILIAR, DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU CAN JUST BARGE IN AND JUDGE THEM AS SUBHUMANS! GUARDS!" soon, the guards that were stationed at the throne room went near the livid princess. "TAKE THIS IDIOT DOWN TO THE LOWEST PARTS OF THE DUNGEONS UNTIL I SAY OTHERWISE!" The guards grabbed the pale Noble by the arms, and then confiscated his wand and staff, before being dragged out the room._

_"Are you sure that this is the right thing to do, my daughter?" said the Queen, looking at her distraught daughter. "Would James-"_

_"I don't care if this little farce would ruin my image to the people of Tristan. I care for James. Even if his behavior was murderous and malevolent, he had saved me during my time at the Academy when Fouquet attacked. That is a debt I cannot repay lightly." replied Henrietta; her bangs overshadowed her eyes, tears streaming down from them._

_"Then there is no time to waste. We need to find him, and then bring him here, where he will be treated properly." said the Queen, who began summoning some of the soldiers to spread the order: Find and Retrieve James Kaiser._

Flashback End

The scouts returned one week after the orders were given, and there was no sign of the raven-haired swordsman. Heartbroken, Henrietta stopped the scouts on their search, feeling it's futile when James doesn't want to be found by anyone.

Louise, almost two weeks after James' beatdown from her father, got depressed from the news of his father's incarceration. She may not be the favorite of her father, but she still has that bit of love in him like family despite wicked anti-control behavior. Still, she remembered how her father almost killed James in front of her eyes. She had started to gradually grown to respect her familiar after defeating Fouquet and at the ball, where she admitted his feelings for him.

Then, three weeks later, the Kingdom of Tristan received news that shook Henrietta to the core. It was the day that she ascended to the throne as the new Queen.

Flashback

_It was a joyous moment, as the former Queen handed her crown to her daughter Henrietta. The whole population of Tristan had come up to the Castle to enjoy the moment. Louise, after being reassured that when Henrietta ascended to the throne, she will do everything in her newfound power to find James and bring him back._

_At the ceremony ball, the guests and nobles (with the exception of the New Head of the Valliére Family) chatted all night long. Louise was looking at the night sky from the balcony and Henrietta was busy socializing with the friends of James (Montmorency, Guiche (presumed to have been dead but was revived a coupled days before James' disappearance), Tabitha, Prof. Colbert, and Kirche.) These proceedings were suddenly interrupted when a messenger burst through the main doors, exhausted._

_"What is wrong, dear messenger, to try and interrupt the reception of my daughter's coronation?" asked Henrietta's mother, the former Queen of Tristan. The messenger just handed over the scroll containing the message directly to Henrietta's hand, who looked confused. The new Queen unraveled the scroll and read its contents. After a minute of reading, she dropped the scroll, and fear formed in her eyes. "What's wrong my daughter? What caused this distress to you?"_

_But Henrietta was consumed with fright, as she suddenly covered her mouth into preventing herself from being heard screaming to herself and left herself shaken. Kirche picked up the scroll and read it._

_"What is it Kirche?" asked the blonde Earth Mage._

_"290,000 lives parish in a gigantic mysterious explosion in Vindobona, Germania." replied Kirche in a hollow but a devastated voice as she read the scroll. Louise, who was coming from the balcony, heard what Kirche had said._

_"W-w-what do you mean 290,000 killed?" said the pink-haired Mage. "That's impossible for that many lives killed in one explosion in one of the largest cities in the world! Stop lying!" she shouted at the redhead._

_"Do you think that I'm lying, you pint-size moron? If you want to know it, then read this yourself!" growled Kirche angrily to the destruction of her hometown/capital city, as she thrust the message into Louise's hand like if she was a rioter about to throw back a tear gas canister back at the police. "I'm going back to my room. So if anyone had the guts to go after me, then have your f***ing wills made!" she roared, before storming off the hall back to her dormitory room, slamming the door behind her._

_Silence descended at the hall, only broken by Henrietta's frightened silence. Louise then went to the new Queen to comfort her, but when she got near her, Henrietta __suddenly hugged her mother and began to sniffle with fear and grief__. But that was not all, as Louise took a few more steps even closer, Henrietta slapped her. The whole room went tense._

_"Y-y-your Highness?" whimpered Louise, holding her slapped cheek._

_"You should have treated your familiar like a human being! You should have given him the same respect as a person, yet you treated him as a slave!" snapped Henrietta, her hand stung a bit when she slapped her former friend's cheek, tears forming in her eyes. "It's because of you that James ran away! It's because of you that James died in this explosion!"_

_Louise was left with almost emotionless fright as she asked Heinrietta "What are you talking about? He was malicious to me ever since he had refused to back down towards Guiche's duel."_

_"I-I-I don't..." the Queen slapped her again._

_"James have defeated Fouquet, and saved me from being killed when I was at the Academy, and yet you treated him like lower than dirt! What kind of Noble are you? Are you the same as your father when it comes to Plebians!" roared Henrietta before answering what she was talking about James being killed in the explosion "James was reported in Vindobona when the explosion occurred! He is one of the many other lives who have perished at the time of the explosion." Tears now began to flow from her eyes. She then turned to her mother. "Mother, I am done here. I need to rest for the day. I cannot go on whilst knowing this information." after that, she just walked out of the chamber and into her room. The guests, who were shocked by the new Queen's outburst and the news of Vindobona's destruction, left the room quietly, leaving the students of the Academy and Prof. Colbert, and Louise, tears now flowing from her eyes._

_**Flashback End**_

After that, Henrietta began ordering most of the men to retrieve the familiar's body in order to give it a proper burial, but it was a vain attempt. The reports that came with the letter said that the blonde haired knifeman's body couldn't be found from the ruins of Vindobona. When she found out on the report about the failure of recovering his body, she didn't have the means to recover him.

And now, there's a looming threat to all citizens. And not just of Tristan, but to all of Halkeginia. How could she wished that James would be by her side at these troubled times?

-0-

**East bloc of ****Halkeginia****, Germania, Unknown Location…**

Meanwhile on the other side of Halkeginia in southern Germania, James has already long escaped from the deuterium oxide bomb in Vindobona more than 5 days ago. Nobody knows how he made or got the bomb, but he defiantly had the help to make enough heavy water for one bomb and he knew how to operate it to put it to its devastating use. In those five days he had been on the run, he had killed more than 290,000 lives in the turn of a single key on a single bomb that had a fuse long enough for him to escape. In the last half of the time-lapse, he had managed to steal a horse when he had killed one of the Germanian commanders on horseback back in the outskirts of Vindobona 17 minutes before the bomb detonated. Since yesterday, he had managed to shake the Army off of him thanks to his presence being reported in Vindobona at the time when he moved the bomb into position that masked his escape of his last sighting.

Now, out in the middle of a beautiful forestland, James was traveling along the countryside relaxed and alert on horseback. While he didn't mind riding on horseback, it brought him ideas of creating an anthem for the new nation he will make that he will eventually create. And before long, he suddenly had an anthem created together from the Star Spangled Banner and a couple other anthems. James further said the lyrics in his head as for the heck of his entertainment while traveling through the countryside:

**Unbreakable Alliance of Free Commonwealths,**

**Created in the embrace of the great east.**

**Oh say! long live the creation of the people's struggles!**

**The Allied, mighty Emerica.**

**Be glorious, what so proudly we hailed at our boundless fatherland;**

**Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,**

**O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?**

**Reliable bastion of the people's friendship,**

**And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in the air,**

**Granting proof through the night that our flag was still there.**

**Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave,**

**O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?**

**On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,**

**The sunlight of freedom shined upon us,**

**And the Great fathers illuminated our path!**

**Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,**

**In fully glory reflected now shines in the stream:**

**'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave**

**O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!**

**In the victory of the immortal ideas of freedom, **

**We saw the future of our country! **

**Bless with victory and peace, may the heav'rescued land,**

**Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!**

**Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,**

**And this be our motto: "Equality through Eternal Glory".**

**And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,**

**O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!**

Even though as a moment too soon, there laid a riverside town 29 miles in the distance in front of James. Before she knew it, he found herself approaching a high precipice giving a distant view of the town below. But luckily, there was a shallow bend going left of the precipice and it lead a longer dirt road built along the edge of the precipice. Obvious for safety, there was a wooden makeshift fence on the edges of the precipice to the right as James and the horse traveled at a slower pace to keep an acquit view of the town in the distance.

The town from a distance looked like they were built from WW2 era French style architecture; James can tell by the architecture because there was a grey narrow tower towering what seemed like 10 stories over the center of the town itself. The other buildings looked heavily similar as of what James saw back in Tristainia; copper colored roofing, white colored walls, and defiantly another mix with post-WW1 Germany era architecture from the exterior of the buildings (houses, cafes, shops, businesses, and etc). The architecture was just so familiar and similar from Europe, but this strangely bothered James for a strange logical reason. The reason was for James' vexation was because it gave him the feeling that he might have been tossed back in time about 200 years into the pass of 1758, and he did not like it. But going back in time is both logically and physically impossible, even if it were a portal popping out of nowhere, this was not making sense for James as he and the horse kept strolling along the road.

-0-

**40 minutes later…**

James had finally arrived into the town with his predictions of its architecture being correct; it looks similar out of Great War era architecture. All around him, it looked like he was in post-WW1 Munich back in Germany; the buildings and the people looked as if they were in the 1600s or something. Oddly, it felt welcoming to James as he galloped casually on the outskirts and a random accordion song popped in his head as he left his horse on the outskirts and took the rest of the trip into the town by foot. The Romanian song that popped in his head was 'John Leach - L'Esprit de Paris'; a random French accordion tune he heard back in his world. He didn't how he was able to know such a tune to this type of familiar urban environment like this as he strolled about the town.

Aside from the accordion tune playing in his head, weariness was slowly increasing the other half of his mind; this was because he hadn't had any sleep since the past 2 days because of the Army going at it with him in pursuit before the deuterium oxide explosion in Vindobona. But now that he had lost the Army, he had to find an inn where he can rest until the next day where he can have the energy to coordinate his works on a rebellion against the completely disoriented and disorganized Germanian regime and to create a new political party that would be the new government that would eventually create Emerica.

So without any objection, he got himself to stroll for a little longer (about almost half an hour) until he got to an inn to get some rest. After checking into a room, he went up to his specific room, which was on the second floor. Once inside the room, he locked the door and shut the curtains and proceeded to lower his shemagh finally and take off his black coat revealing an elbow sleeve white shirt that had clips on his lower arms holding his Blackhawk Garra II knives before he went towards the bed. After that, he laid down on the bed with his own personally timer in his head set for 4:00am (13 hours). Although he could keep going if he had too, but you don't go through hell week without learning the bodies limits, which is more than most people imagine. He didn't want to stress herself though; the lack of sleep could lead to slow cognitive functions and could be fatal in the right or the worst situations.

-0-

**11:04pm…approximately 10 hours later**

Nighttime had come and James had no idea how or when his own nightmares of war would end. All he remembered was waking up to the nauseating smell of blood and war while hearing the dying voices of the mass genocide of the Jewish people and the Nazi uproars. Although, something woke him up in the middle of the night and it came to his instantly that something was wrong. Instead of the bustling people and chatter of the night, all of that was replaced by angry yelling outside nearby out in the courtyard by the window. Then, he heard something else; the doors being kicked open. Hearing stomping footsteps below in the first floor of the inn, James rose from the bed and pulled back his lower arms and threw them back down on the floor as his knives went into both of his hands and with their blades already clipped forward.

After a few moments, suddenly the door swung open and in stepped a soldier wearing a blue uniform screaming and already firing his musket into the empty bed. Like a bolt of lightning, James slid behind the soldier and jammed the soldier's arm beneath its chin, locking the soldier's jaw shut while simultaneously driving his knives into the soldier's spine. Then he delivered the coup de grâce as he stabbed his left knife into the neck of the dying soldier killing him almost instantly without a sound. James looked down at the soldier–turned-corpse with a grim feeling. Yes, something was definitely wrong tonight.

-0-

Meanwhile the soldiers outside had been gathering the villagers into the center of the courtyard. Some were thrown, face first in to the hard stone streets of the village square, others had to be dragged and the ones foolish enough to resist were killed without mercy. At the head of the soldiers was Sir Lossif, the commanding officer of the nearby garrison and one of Germania's many square mages that are still alive after the destruction of Vindobona. His familiar, a menacing black fire dragon loomed threateningly over anyone who would dare defy his master. His officers were commanding the troops to threateningly round up everyone they see and kill anyone who would dare defy or resist his. Out of the group of huddled frightened town folks, an elderly man stepped out and addressed the leader of the soldiers.

"I don't understand Sir Lossif, what have we done to deserve this brutish treatment?"

The haughty noble took glance at the frail looking elder and sneered. "Don't play innocent old man. Your town has been sheltering a would-be rebel from the forest. That's a crime punishable by death."

"T…tha…that's impossible," sputtered the village elder. "There are no rebels in the Salvika forest. At this time of year the forest is completely inhospitable to anyone."

"More lies! It seems you peasants have yet to learn the meaning of respect. Bring me the bastard or I will kill one man by the minute until you do."

"Shut up!" Several heads turned towards the source of the voice as the head of the town too had stepped out of the group. Gone were the friendly and cheerful eyes that James and the town folks had so often seen before. Instead, they were replaced with eyes of burning rage. "First you take away our women and children, and then you searching and ransack our homes without a reason and now you're saying it's a crime for us to bring in anymore people! You're basically persecuting us for crimes that aren't even considered crimes!"

"Indeed," agreed noble, "You have done no wrong, if anyone is to blame then blame your father Wilhelm, the previous town's chief, for it was he who had the nerve to speak out against the government and bring this punishment upon you and your town."

"What?"

"Anyways", continued Lossif, "by the order of associate rulers of Germania, beloved and merciful to all, I have received orders to take whatever action necessary to ensure the peace within this province. And I think I'll start by killing everyone in this town to deter others from committing such heinous crimes ever again. KILL THEM!"

It was at that exact moment when a dark bottle-shaped object flew in to the air and it shattered and combusted into flames as it hit one of the horse and carriages near Lossif's familiar dragon and set them to a fiery blaze. But this wasn't the ordinary horse and carriage being used by the Germanian army that was still operating after the bomb detonation; the horse and carriage was actually filled with barrels of oil that was later going to be used to burn the town down one by one if the people were resisting at a severe level.

And as so unfortunate as the flames engulfed the carriage in a few seconds, the oil barrels explode altogether and sending large shards of burning wood from the carriage into the troops and the people. If that wasn't over, several other oil barrels that weren't detonated from the explosion were thrown into the air and landed back onto the ground and set a bunch of troops and some of the people on fire. The scene was now filled with the scorching screams of horror and burning ashes of wood from the resulting damage of an instantly improvised Molotov cocktail.

The troops never even had a second to register the fact that they were under attack before James stepped out of the shadows throwing a wicked-looking curved knife at one of the soldiers. With quickness and efficiency as of a well trained and experienced soldier, James quickly crescent kick a musket out of the hands of a troops before sending a reverse high spin roundhouse kick to the head of the troops before going at it with the other troops. At this moment, the troops weren't even having a chance to fight and as James' close quarters combat abilities and moves caught every soldier off guard in terms of being unprepared to knowing how to counter James' skillful kicks and punches. As James dispatched the last soldier after retrieving his left knife, a primal instinct within his brain caused him to duck as a giant fire ball passed over his head singeing the backs of his clothes.

"Ho, not bad," said a voice, "you may be more of a challenge than the others."

James turned around to face Sir Lossif looking at him with a bemused expression as if he was looking at some strange alien. In his right hand was his rapier shaped wand already readying up another spell. James sighed,_"__Oh __toll,__es ist eine__erste__magischen Kontinent__mit Strom__-__verdorbenen__Magier__, __und__dann ist es eine__blutrünstige__Drachen.__Das wird__viel schwieriger sein__, als ich __es erwartet hatte__."_ James glanced over to his left arm that had his other knife attached without moving his head when he had ducked and knew instantly that he wouldn't have enough time to draw it before his opponent threw another fireball at him, instead he once again drew his right knife and threw it.

"Ha! Pathetic!" cried Lossif as he easily deflected the small wicked looking knife with his rapier, "Is that the best you can do peasant?"

But that was exact moment James had been waiting for. As Lossif deflected his Blackhawk Garra II knife, he not only delayed his own spell but he had also swung the rapier away from his own body leaving himself completely open. At that moment James charged and smashed the arrogant noble prick into the ground with a football tackle that would have made any NFL athlete proud in any type of football game. Using Boxing style grappling techniques, James pinned down the noble's arms using his knees and looked down at his prey.

It was at that moment Sir Lossif knew that he was, for the lack of a couple better words, 'oh fucked.' Despite all his experiences on the battlefield, Lossif had always fought and won his battles on his terms with his opponent at a safe distance from where he could fire his spells with impunity. However, in close quarters hand-to-hand combat without his wand against a well trained knife user like James, he never stood a chance.

As James slammed his right elbow into Lossif's face and with a loud crack from his nose, James happened to have deplorably slammed the back of Lossif's face into the ground with so much impact that the ground cracked a bit under Lossif's head as James proceeded with a tight choke hold. Even with the Lossif's cry for mercy, Lossif's words were gibberish as his wind tunnel was on the verge of being crushed under an iron grip of James' choke hold. In fact, the choke hold was so tight, in just one certain moment, the grip got so tight that Lossif was literally snarling in agony with his teeth closed as he was trying to get some air into himself before he lost his grip on James' slim arms. And as the most horrifyingly thing that everyone in the background could watch, James' thumbs dug into Lossif's front proportion of his neck and pierced a gruesome oval shaped hole into Lossif's neck. And with the addition of some much force put on Lossif's neck, James wanted to kill Lossif right at this moment at a quicker manner by lifting Lossif's neck a bit and then moved his fingers where he just turned Lossif's neck violently to the right. In the time he did this, it only took James' about 2 seconds to finish off Lossif with a pierced hole in the front of his neck.

With Lossif giving out his last breath like if a demon just took an eerie stroke of a short breath, James let go of Lossif's neck and let Lossif's pierced neck and broken head hit the pavement. And from the aftermath of another brutal killing of a high ranking figure, James' thumbs from all sides were drenched in blood that spilled down onto parts of his hands as he started getting up from his victim. In retrospection, James knew he should've never have expected much more, but what all he saw was the terrified expressions of the people looking at him as if he was some kind of monster. James had to admit that they were a little disappointed. Looking at the unrecognizable faces, James stood his grounds over his victim and looked around himself amongst the dumbfound people besides the burning fires from the explosion.

It wasn't long before he spoke to himself silently about what to do now "Alright, it's now time to know where the hell I am and what was happening."

-0-

At the village a few hours later…

2:10am…

Grimly, the eventual town's chief, Wilhelm, began to describe the events that had recently shaken Germania to its core. Wilhelm described how the Germanian monarchy and the military faltered because of the destruction of the Vindobona. He also described how there are other political parties throughout Germania trying to get a political and a militaristic restoration of Germania. And lastly, Wilhelm also explained the current situation of Germania at the moment, how the militaries of each political party are trying to find the suspected people responsible for the destruction of Vindobona; they are targeting suspeceted mages who were responsible for the destruction since the explosion was so powerful that only a mage can be up to all this.

Upon hearing Wilhelm's explanation, James had understood immediately why the terrified expressions of the people seemed so imperceptibly premonition.

"Wilhelm, those soldiers…they're going to come back again aren't they?"

"I don't see how," Wilhelm cheerfully replied, "you killed all of them."

"No Wilhelm, don't you see? Those soldiers were possibly a patrol group that was sent to kill all of you if they didn't find you. When they realize why the patrol group didn't come back, they'll send and even larger army to finish the job."

Wilhlem fell silent for a moment as he realized the implications of what James had just told him "We have to do something."

Wilhelm nodded. "We have to fight back of course, but the problem is, will they?" Wilhelm pointed her thumb over to the huddled townfolks "Can you convince them to fight?"

Wilhlem is referring to the people of the town who had just watched the conversation transpire.

Seeing the town leader's concern, James turned around and walked towards the people. He then spoke up to them in like Hitler-sort-of-ish tone. The following is what he said:

"_I know that all of you here are devastated by the crimes that have befallen on your lives thanks to the world's tyrannical rule currently in charge of the entire continent. Through that, I'm sure that some of you here lost a loved one or somebody important to you. What appears as a show of an avaricious build-up of control over the millions of people who fallen in the mists of the corruption of every monarchy, can you simply let this injustice continue, to have them take away the rights and freedoms of you all?"_

"NO!" all the people shouted in reply to James' speech before he continued.

"_For hundreds of thousands of fighter who want to fight, there's a chance that you might not come back alive. However, your sacrifice will ensure a peaceful and free society for your sons, daughters and grandchildren.__And you can also face your own parents saying that you died protecting those you valued the most. The great personal and spiritual meeting of the old fighters in struggle shall be rebuilt by the return with our courageous hearts to restore the one and only one power in the continent to the people._

_There's no shame in that. The shame lies on the Monarchies and the Noble families who take advantage of you, your loved ones, your properties, and even in your souls all through your lives. The future of your lives are in vain, it's a small, rootless, international clique that is turning society into a ruinous complexity of freedom that does not want the people before it to have an organized form of peace. It is the people who are at home both nowhere and everywhere, who do not have anywhere a soil on which they have grown up, but who live in Gallia today, in Germania tomorrow, or those who feel at home everywhere._

_The Tyrannical Rule of each and every monarchy! Is that right or not!?"_

"YES!" all the people shouted again in positive aggression as James continued in a growing tone of angry like if he were Hitler almost.

"_They are the only ones who can be addressed as international elements, because they conduct their business everywhere. But we as the people cannot follow them! The people are bounded to its soil, bounded to its land, bounded to the possibilities of life that freedom offers._

_And everyday ladies and gentlemen, everyday that brings you all closer to submission; everyday one person in the world is like one life enslaved. 365 days everyone, 3,000,000 lives murdered by the year."_

Everyone gasp to the explanation of the casualty rate from James' speech before he continued.

"_These tyrant autocrats profits through your own cowardice, but even that has its own limits. This injustice will and has to stop. _

_By to you as the people, we must band together and put an end to this rancorous control of this corrupted rule. This is the evil made flesh. By fighting this evil…_

_We will all fear for nothing! We will not hope for nothing! We will not falter! We'll seek discipline and find our liberty! Either we are all free, or not!"_

As soon as James finished his speech, only shocked stares are what he got from the people. After a couple moments, one person started yelling in agreement with him then another one then another person until the entire crowd yelled in agreement. The once pessimism and fear in the eyes of the people are now replaced by determination, fervor, and will to fight.

As the crowd is yelling in unison with lines "FREEDOM! FREEDOM FREEDOM!" James turned to the people and said "Since you're all here are going on the battlefield, I will teach you on the ways of warfare far superior than what these muppets have in their sleeves. Expect a great deal of training within the next 12 hours." James said as the people replied to him in positive shouting as if he was being hailed in German.

"To all black smiths, you are to man the weapon forges and start pumping up weapons particularly more than just swords. I will assist you in creating more powerful and reliable weapon called rifles rather than the muskets in order to up our arsenal." James said.

Not to mention if any of you should know, James was also an unusual expertise in various weaponry to the point where he's capable of crafting World War 2 era (1939-1945) weapons and some of the Cold War era (1945-1991) weapons thanks to his fascination of reading about, disassembling and assembling guns for so long while in his spare time. He has the capability of making weapons because of another forgotten skill he overlooked during his high-school years; he has the formula and idea of making gunpowder. Sadly enough, he didn't know how to make cordite or smokeless gunpowder because of the materials being claimed to be hard to find by him. More likely, he believes that he has the resources to make gunpowder. In this case, his expertise will be a lot of help to upping the arsenal in the revolution besides being in charge of coordinating the command in office and organization.

"Alright then, head to the weapon forges. While the rest of all you, let's distinguish the flames and prepare for training. Do what you got to do for 20 minutes; we got a lot to clean up." James declared before the black smiths headed to the blacksmiths while the rest of the people scrambled to their homes preparing themselves before returning.

James nodded in confirmation to himself to what needed to be done before Wilhelm asked something in particular to the revolution.

"What are we going to name our group then?" Wilhelm asked.

James pondered in his head before he made a reply.

"Let's have our group called, The Emericans?" James declared in his German tounge.

Wilhlem nodded with confirmation and his understanding to the needs for the demand of the newer freedom.

With that, a war of liberation is well under way…destined to change the history of the Halkeginia…forever.

-0-

**Author's notes: Before I end my share of words, I do like to make an apology for the surprises in this story such as Guiche's resurrection and also for introducing a nuclear weapon in this story. The information about the deuterium oxide bomb will come later in an eventual flashback in the story further on, and I'll be reintroducing Guiche to the story as in pardon for the brutal execution of him. I mean come on, like the laws of physics, of something goes up, something must come down. Same thing, especially if there is magic.**

**Anyways though, thanks for reading, if you **_**guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story, please leave a review if you can. Until then, farewell.**_


	5. Chapter 5: Herstellung von Emerica

Disclaimer: I do not own Familiar of Zero

Emerican Odyssey

_**Chapter 5: **__**Herstellung von **__**Emerica**_

-0-

**8:09am…**

The town of Salvika…a town situated within the grassy forest and valleys. Rich in iron needed in the manufacture of weapons like swords, shields and armors. The town also has a sizable supply of premium-quality hardwood as it is situated near a forest clearing which is needed in crafting handles for swords or manufactured goods. The town itself is 600 miles away from the ruins of the Germanian capital city of Vindobona. This town was originally supplying manufactured goods and import food products into Vindobona, but it was now transformed to make weapons for the revolution which meant this town was crucial to every war effort of James' Emerican revolution along with the early development of the government almost ready to be used to create a political part of Germania.

Currently, the town of Salvika is currently brimming with activity. Town folks are busy repairing houses and other buildings that were damaged last night. The town folks are really grateful to James rescuing them from the wrath of the remnants of the unknown Germanian army patrol. If not for her, they will be…whatever. The people don't really want to know what will happen to them if the German-American didn't help them.

"Give me a hand over here." a town folk said as he signaled another town folk to help him lift up a slab of wood to be used in repairing the door of a house.

The town folk being asked approached the person requesting help and they both carried the slab of wood towards the house that needs its door to be replaced along with its doorframe and window frames repaired.

All over Salvika, buildings and other structures suffered varying degrees of damage ranging from unhinged doors, cracked walls, shattered windows, and some said shops were completely vandalized. Some of the much smaller structures are even destroyed beyond repair and the villagers who happened to occupy said buildings have to build makeshift houses at the moment. Of course, the people are doing their best to repair their homes from the massacre that happened last night.

Also, the remains of the carts and the soldiers that James had killed were buried by the people deep underground and erased every single evidence that said group went here so, in the event that another group is sent by the whereabouts of the political party's military patrols, no one will find an evidence, or more proper to say, excuse for some Germanian royalists to start killing them again.

-0-

Meanwhile, inside the weapon forges…

The black smiths are busy crafting the new muskets that James called as rifles. The basic similarity of the muskets and rifles in terms of structural integrity is well defined and the two things that differentiate the two are the bullet being used and the latter being more complicated than the former in terms of mechanism. Muskets use metal balls as ammunition while rifles use cartridges instead. In terms of performance, the rifle trumps over muskets because the rifle's cartridge boasts higher penetration, stopping power per shot, range, accuracy, clip capacity and even probability of scoring a kill as long as the cartridge sinks into somebody's flesh.

Overall, James is amazed at how well the black smiths are able to recreate the so-called weapons with all his work put into teaching them. The black smiths may look experienced but seeing these people craft weapons that they just recently saw with great efficiency amazed her. In fact, just an hour after he and the black smiths went into the weapon forges, he showed them the designs of a German weapon that is the most recognizable weapon in during the Cold War arsenals of many countries at the time which is still being used today by some third world countries. The weapon was known no more than the G3A3; originally developed by German engineers at Mauser Werke late in the closing days of the 2nd World War, the design was refined in Spain after World War 2 at the CETME Company (Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales, or Center of Technical Studies of Special Materials). And during the 1950s, West Germany was faced with the dilemma of rearming with the new 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge that was being fielded by NATO at the time. Initially, the Bundeswehr (German Army) tried to purchase manufacturing rights for the FN FAL from FN, but Belgium rejected the proposition. So the Bundeswehr then bought manufacturing of the CETME mod.A, that then had its design transferred to Heckler & Koch, who then began modifying the design, eventually manufacturing the rifle as the G3. It's most recognizable feature is its superb reliability on par with the AK series assault rifles. Since it fires the 7.62x51mm cartridge; the G3 has horrible accuracy on fully-automatic like the AK.

Besides referring from the G3's history, James introduced the black smiths a quicker production process called stamping (also known as pressing), a building process used in every modern nation back in his world. Stamping includes a variety of sheet-metal forming manufacturing processes, such as punching using a machine press or stamping press, blanking, embossing, bending, flanging, and coining. This process speeds up production and the manufacturing of weapons at a lower cost in money and time dramatically. Additionally, since all the parts are stamped out as the same size and shape, it makes the parts interchangeable.

But James was able to figure out how to effectively teach the black smiths without a so-called 'machine press' or a 'stamping press'. Instead, he alternatively taught the black smiths how to do this process using only their anvils, simple tools, and teamwork to stamp out the pieces from thin sheets of metal. Since the stamping required using thin sheets of metal, it reduced the metal needed by 30 percent to make the G3 battle rifles. And since the original G3 battle rifles from his world already had stamp sheeted receivers, the amount of steel needed to proceed with the production of these rifles were reduced to enough as 10% less steel needed. James taught and instructed lastly for the black smiths to recycle excess metal from the process and melt them down to reuse again to make more sheets of metal and start the process over again. The black smiths were easily capable of adapting to this faster process of production within almost 40 minutes and it reduced the number of tools needed, thereby, reducing time and effort. To speed up the assembly line, James handpicked a small amount of other black smiths to put the parts together to make the G3 battle rifles.

The black smiths already produced more than 30 of them, enough to arm a small fire team by James' knowledge, but though this is primarily because this is the first time the black smiths have created a rapid firing weapon. Not to mention the quality of the G3s are already respectable. Even the cartridges that the black smiths created for the G3s are reliable even with black powder instead of cordite or smokeless gunpowder. To James' perspective, these guys would have been great weapon designers and they should be already employed by corporations like Remington Arms and Chrysler Defense if their craftsmanship skills are to be considered and if they were born from his world.

Aside from it, the actual G3 that the blacksmiths were making in particular was actually the G3A3 battle rifle; an improved version of the G3A2. The G3A3 clones are designated as the VK3 (Volkes Kampfgewehr 3, aka 'People's Battle Rifle 3'). The VK3 is more like a slight upgrade over the battle rifle it was based on. Upgrades include a hardwood stock, pistol grip, and handguard as compared to the synthetic plastic grips of the original G3s; but nevertheless, the weapon's weight was on par with its original counterpart. Other upgrades included a different cartridge of a 5.45x39mm that allowed the G3 to be able to be effective at maximum range of 400yds, and with the additional upgrade of the magazines being able to hold from 20 cartridges (in the 7.62x51mm cartridge) to 25 cartridges (because of the 5.45x39mm cartridge's smaller and slimmer shape). Besides the VK's features, it had other details that made it different from its European counterpart.

The VK3 had a nickel-coated rifled-barrel (since nickel is anti-corrosive) which solves the problem with the corrosive effects from gunpowder. Following more features, the VK has a rate of fire of 350 rounds per minute with a fast trigger finger since the weapon is restricted to semi-automatic only, a muzzle velocity of 1,500 feet compared to 2,900 feet of the modern counterpart, the removing of the bipod in order to reduce a pound off of the rifle, and a slightly larger charging handle to allow for the shooter to have a better grip of pulling the charging handle back to lock the bolt open in place when the shooter is reloading.

With 20 VK3s being produced for today, James restricted the blacksmiths only on this design in order to remain cheap and organized until he can gain some ground for the Emericans. But lastly, to not recall, the troops needed uniforms; something to designate themselves away from other political parties and primarily blends with the environment of the forestland. So by taking the armor from the corpses of the unknown Germanian political party soldiers and melting it down, James directed the recreation of the armor in a different style. But in order not to break his goal on keeping the production of VK3 rifles ongoing, he had to cancel all different types of body armor and resend the metal to be use to create more rifles.

As an alternative and unlikely source; he had the audacity to inspire the Emerican uniform based on American Civil War uniforms. In spite of recreating American Civil War uniforms, James had the thought to not care about it since he's in a different world where the Union and the South doesn't exist. Moreover, with his best knowledge as possible; he went over to the sewing shops in town and demanded for the shops to only make the uniform comprising a dark-forestland green tunic with bellowed hip pockets and dark-forestland green breeches, a forestland facewrap (to allow the troops to be kept comfortable from the elements of the forest), black leather fingerless gloves, arm wraps, brown leather boots (made by any type of boot by cutting the tops off) and dark-khaki puttees. The creation of the uniform was rather quicker than James had expected it to be since the clothing needed to create the uniform was abundant and simple to create from other clothing. To top off the uniform, the uniform was completed with a dark-forestland color Cuban Military Style Cap.

Overall in addition, with 500 sets of caps and uniforms being designated as the VMK (Volkspartei Militärkappe, 'People's military cap') and the uniform being the VMU (Volkspartei Militäruniform, 'People's military uniform'); James postponed the uniforms temporally until at least 100 more VK3 rifles can be produced and until the new Emerican troops are trained enough yet.

-0-

**Meanwhile in the Town Courtyard…**

The town of Salvika is a mid-sized town comprising of about less than several thousand inhabitants. At present, the Emericans are at a 200 strong capacity. While this number is small compared to the armies that James expects to be several times larger than his, the Emerican's size is a good start for now. So far, the new conscripts composing the Emericans are doing a great progress in combat training. James didn't need to worry of the enemy attacking for now as the hostiles that he killed last night are just some loose units of the enemy and, therefore, have no contact with their HQ which could send reinforcements.

Now since there was only 140 VK3s, and 500 sets of military uniforms manufactured, James had instructed and got the 200 men in depth with the basics of hand-to-hand combat. While they are just beginners, James could tell that they have a lot of potential in battle. He saw as one of the men had managed to make a dent on the training dummy with a punch. Much later, James taught them different grappling techniques just in case they managed to get right next to an enemy soldier in an encounter. Aside from that, James also taught the troops various martial arts techniques like Boxing and Taekwondo in order to show the men basic aggressive moves against the enemy.

The training is tough just like James said but the men seem to ignore their tired state in training. Perhaps, they now think that this is their chance to get back at the nobles abusing them all their lives.

By the end of the week when 280 VK3s were built, James suits all 200 troops up by the time the first week ended for training. By the time the second week came, the last part of training was about to go underway; weapons training.

On the second week, James was now busy teaching about 200 men on marksmanship skills particularly on headshots using the new VK3s that James and the black smiths have created. Much to his delight, his own version of the G3A3 was easier to make and a lot lighter compared to the ordinary G3A3 rifle that had the synthetic grips to it. Probably because the main body of the rifle was made of lightweight steel and hardwood that made it light enough for a child to carry. Although it was a weapon used by West Germany and other third world countries today, James didn't care at all. He feels more comfortable when using it than an AK47 or even an M16. The young men (who were about James' age or 20 years old) whom he's teaching are showing signs of enthusiasm as they saw him blow a tin can off with only one shot. Furthermore, the rifles have 25 5.45x39mm cartridges in its magazine, meaning that the user won't need to reload every shot and they will simply need to replace a new magazine in when all the bullets are all fired in the empty clip. What's more is that the cartridges are loaded at the back of the gun instead in the front. The young men are now eager to learn how to use the new weapons known as rifles.

"First group, line up!" James barked and 10 uniformed Emerican troops formed up a line all holding the new battle rifle in their hands in a refined military discipline fashion.

"Ready!" James shouted signaling the men to get into firing position "Aim!" The men took aim with their battle rifles at their targets, which were ceramic plates with a distance of 300 yards between the plates and the men.

"Fire!" James shouted furthermore as the men fired their VK3s with the similar loud 'bang' sound of an original G3 rifle from each rifle. All of the plates were destroyed in the hailstorm burst o lead bullets from each man followed by the smoke that was hanging behind everyone, going up several meters above the troop's heads and dissipating. To the men watching the new rifles, this is amazing as muskets won't be able to do this unless in sufficient numbers but that "sufficient" number is from 20 to 60 men in tight-knit formation making them a vulnerable target to artillery fire.

As James by the end of the second week, with the men sufficiently trained enough with their new weapons and uniforms, James' troops would slowly gain proficiency and are already more than a match for any soldier in the world. However, James also knew that he and the town had neither the amount of troops nor the heavier equipment to turn their small Emerican contingent into an effective fighting force. With each passing hours, the head of the army would grow suspicious as to why the patrol had never returned and would send out an even larger party to hunt down those who dared raise a hand against the soldiers of the government. With perhaps only 2 or 3 days left until an imminent attack, James knew that he would need more troops. He would need allies to support the Emerican cause. He brought up the topic to Wilhlem at noon while giving the troops a week's end break.

Speaking of topic, during those two weeks of training, James were not only training troops by day; but he was also developing the new government by night. The overall government was based off of the American government and its ideology. Like the American government, it had taken hours for James, assisted by a group of lawyers and politicians, to write up a draft of the Emerican Bill of Rights similar to the American Bill of Rights. It had taken even shorter time (thanks to James' vast intelligence on the American government) for James to figure out a judicial and electoral system that could possibly work for territory built under the Emerica control later on when Emerican becomes bigger. Finally, James settled for a system that he knew was used by many countries within the commonwealth from his world. James divided the map of Germania by its population of 72,000,000 into 12 known commonwealths with roughly 6,000,000 people per commonwealth. Each party would have a representative in each commonwealth that would campaign for a seat in parliament. Each commonwealth would vote for a representative belonging to a certain party and the party leader with the most seats in parliament would win the election to become a Prime Minister who would serve a term of 5 years before another election. Furthermore, the Emerican Bill of Rights stated that it was a citizen's duty to take up arms against anyone who tried to take parliament by force, and since the Emerican Army swore loyalty only to the constitution, it effectively made a coup d'état a difficult form of suicide.

However, the government was not opposed official yet because the Emericans are only just a small rebellion and it wouldn't be powerful enough to start a government in this state, since Germania is both politically and militaristically disorganized and disarrayed in confusion with the destruction of the capital. So the creation of the new Emerican government was kept in secrecy for now to hide the information of its creation of its Emerican rebellion.

-0-

**Meanwhile inside the Town center…**

With the government put to the side at the moment, Wilhlem took a moment to ponder the predicament thoughtfully and after several moments, he spoke up her proposal, "Well, there's always Valunich."

"Valunich?" James asked almost if the name made him think of another place similar to that name.

"Yep, Valunich." explained Wilhelm, "It's a neighboring sister municipality of Salvika. They're only about approximately 46 miles away and we're practically allies with them."

"Allies…?" asked James with conviction.

William nodded enthusiastically. "Of course, in fact, the town's head is my uncle and trust me; no one wants to rebel against the Germanian political parties more than he does. Though," he added "I have to warn you, Uncle Otto can be a little crazy at times. Iron Handed Otto is what the people call him."

"I see…" said James still dubious about this Iron Handed Otto.

_"__Nun, man kann__Bettler__nicht wählerisch sein__.__"_ James thought before he proposed an invitation "Why don't we pay this uncle of yours a kindly visit?"

-0-

As it turned out, convincing the town of Valunich to join the Emericans was a lot easier than either James or Wilhelm could possibly have anticipated. While Iron Handed Otto was many things, he certainly was not a fool. When James and Wilhlem followed by their small force of Emerican troops brought news that an army of 300 mages was in the process of marching upon Salvika, he knew for a fact, that the contingent of knights would not hesitate to discriminate between the rebels and his town. Furthermore, there wasn't a single town folks in Valunich who hadn't been affected negatively by any other Germanian political party regime. Harsh taxes from the political parties trying to replace the annihilated Germanian monarchy left many peasants close to starvation and on the streets. Like the rebels of Salvika, the townspeople of Valunich, had enough of each and every other tyrannical rules of any other Germanian political party. So it wasn't surprising, when almost all of the healthy males of Valunich, more than 100 people combined, volunteered to join James' Emerican rebellion. However despite their obvious enthusiasm, none of their spirits could even compare to the heated fervor of Iron Handed Otto.

"Well it's about damn time!" he yelled when James and Wilhelm explained their situation. "I've been sitting here aging away with nothing to do and I'd say a good fight is exactly what I need before I kick the bucket!" He reached down below the table and to James' unconcerned surprise; he seemingly pulled out a giant broadsword out from thin air and brandished above his head. "Just point out those snot nosed nobles and I'll give them a good old taste of cold steel."

All in all, James had to admit it was a fairly comical scene watching a 5 foot 4 tall man swing around a sword that was almost as tall as he was. But behind that aging grey beard and small frame, Otto possessed strong wiry muscles that could easily put a larger man in his place. James could also see from the way Iron Handed Otto handled his weapon he must have been a soldier during his younger days. But still, James couldn't help but be slightly alarmed at the man's zeal. "Steady down there sir, there's a word called preparation."

"Ah and here I mistook you for a young man, with all the recklessness and insanity of youth."

James smiled. "I may be young, but I'm not stupid enough to think that we can win this war without a good plan first."

Iron Handed Otto chuckled at the young man's rebuke. "Right you are young man. And I'm not as mad as people seem to think I am either. After I started hearing rumors about your little rebellion I sent scouts to watch the provincial garrison."

As James' eyebrows shot up in a composted but a pleasant surprise, Iron Handed Otto was turning out to be a better ally that he could possibly have hoped for. Suddenly, as if on cue, a pigeon carrier dropped into the room. Otto had untied the small letter from the pigeon's leg and began reading the contents intently. James had already guessed the nature of the message and couldn't conceal his excitement. "The garrison is out!"

Iron Handed Otto nodded enthusiastically. "The scout saw a column of knights leave the castle around a two day's ride to the south."

"How many?"

"He says no more than 300. Mostly cavalry and mage knights."

"Lovely!" James said sarcastically despite his mind being ready for such news to be told. "Just, Bloody, Lovely."

-0-

**Meanwhile on the road leading towards Salvika…**

The road was wide and flat as the cavalry contingent made its way across the grassy flatlands of Salvika. At the head of the column was the commander of the force rode Glarus Fraser who once again had been reading his orders for confirmation. His orders had been simple; hunt down the rebellious forces that had attacked Sir Lossif's patrol and crush any signs of insurrection within the province. It had to be done as soon as possible, and within a swift victory.

Glarus arrived at the Northern garrison outpost only three days ago and it was by sheer luck that he had been made the commander of the garrison after the recent death of his predecessor, Sir Lossif. Fraser jumped at the chance to prove himself as military commander in order to advance himself along the political ladders of the Germanian political party hierarchy. Of course, Glarus never expected himself to remain in the military for more than a few months. After all, Glarus was a noble and nobles were expected to govern provinces and work in the royal court. But a few easy victories under the belt would help him gain influence and power among his scheming compatriots. And an easy victory it would be, after all the enemy Glarus faced were nothing more than a small rabble of malcontent peasant. Lacking numbers, organization, or any type of tactical knowledge, he almost felt sorry for those misguided fools…almost.

-0-

As soon as his scouts reported that the cavalry contingent had entered Salvika territory, James had began leading his small Emerican group of 30 men in total on the hurry after getting the directions the scouts had pointed out for them. Clearly, most of the men are energized due to the training the other day and their day's long rest earlier. Either way, they are thankful as they were given the rifles and armor sets that James built for them as their protection before leaving Salvika. As what it looked like, they were already looking like WW1 soldiers by the looks of their forestland color military cap and uniform – somewhat making them already intimidating before they saw action.

Regardless, they were on alert about the enemy soldiers who were on their attack towards Salvika.

"Speed it up men!" James commanded as he and the battle group were traversing on an unpaved gravel road "We need to pursue these weasels before they reach Salvika!"

"Sir, yes sir!" the men shouted in unity all together as they quickened their boots that were crunching and crackling faster and faster on the gravel. Pretty soon, they were creating a running as equivalently as James up at the very front.

The battle was about to begin…

-0-

It was noon when Fraser had spotted a small party of men across the hills below in to the forest. At first, the rebel forces where nothing more than a small stain on the horizon, but as Fraser called his squadron to a trot, he could make out roughly 30 men wearing plain military caps and clothes that made them definitely look like a pathetic mercenary force. The standard colors for the Germanian infantry had always been black and grey. However, these rebels had painted their clothing olive green in what was a successful attempt of blending themselves into the wildlife of the forest.

As Fraser's force of 300 drew near, fear rippled through the ranks as the small force and the armored peasants began running across the plains heading directly towards the safety of the ridge at the end of the field. Still, Glarus would never give them that chance. They were there, vulnerable in the open, and Glarus Fraser saw it as an opportunity to draw first blood and demoralize the rest of the rebel forces. He needed to say only one word.

"Charge!"

The cavalry column broke out from a trot to a gallop in perfect formation towards the rebels running frantically for their lives. At this distance Fraser could make out the rebel leaders. He was surprised to see a young man with a black jacket and trousers with a white undershirt under the jacket, along with a distinctive dark-greenish spangled facewrap that seemed to have draped down onto his upper chest. Fraser knew it was futile however and he could almost smell the blood already. But that was when things started going wrong for Glarus Fraser.

The front ranks of the column were met with the eruption of rapid gunfire and smoke which sent them into the ground with both men and horses alike screaming in pain. Instantly, the disciplined formation of the knight squadron disintegrated as the rear ranks collided with their comrades and their horses tumbling and rolling headlong into one another. Soon, the organized column was a milling mass of plunging horses and men.

"What's going on?" shrieked Glarus as he heard the whooshing of bullets pass him. "What's happening?" One of Glarus's men examined the ground and picked up a small object from the Earth.

"Caltro…" The man could only say grimly before multiple gunshots struck him in the femur, ribs, and the neck. Made up of a couple sharp nails welded together to create a star shaped weapon, caltrops had been used for centuries to slow down both men and beast alike on the battlefield. But it was not a weapon Glarus had expected the rebels to use. How dare those worthless peasants use such a cowardly tactic against him? Glarus knew that errors such as this could finish his career if he wasn't careful. He swore he catch the leaders he had seen, already thinking of ways to exact his vengeance with extreme prejudice.

In total; Glarus lost about 59 men to the rebel's wicked trap and the deadly fray of gunfire. But yet, he reasoned that a glorious victory worked wonders on erasing memories of minor mistakes.

Using Wind magic to blow the caltrops away from their path, the column continued their pursuit of the rebels at an even quicker pace to catch up on lost time. The rebels were stilling firing off gunshots even if they were crossing the ridge and running into the nearest ravine. Just moments into the battle with the first few sounds of mechanical movement from the troops reloading their rifles, Glarus and his force pursued without hesitation. As he rounded the corner of the narrow ravine, he saw the rebels had got trapped into a dead end and Glarus rejoiced. Truly he was loved by the gods as these rebel scrums had practically been delivered upon him.

-0-

Everything had gone as exactly as James had planned. Led by Iron Handed Otto, the spear wall of about 50 men had done its job and sealed the fate of the cavalry contingent. Now, one word echoed throughout the ravine, condemning Glarus and his men to their deaths.

"Attack!"

From the heights above, Wilhelm and his men directed their VK3s with precision, aiming at any officers they could see. Lead, smoke, and even large rocks rained down upon Glarus and his men, causing many of the troops to panic while they die from the attacks. Improvised Molotov cocktails were thrown in to dense concentration of knights and horses, spreading fire and death. Horses and men alike screamed in agony falling by the dozen from gunfire and fire at the same time. Tightly packed together in the narrow ravine, not only did the horsemen make an impossible target to miss, but they also prevented themselves from being able to fight back in an effective manner.

It was common knowledge for James that all heavy weapons required some level of space to operate effectively. This proved true whether the weapon was a catapult, artillery piece or even a tank. Packed together in a dense the environment, some of the mage knights did not even have enough space to raise their wands above their head. Those that did often tried to cast powerful spells doing more damage to their comrades beside them then the actual enemy. Soon the contingent of knights disintegrated into to pure chaos.

Though James had many traits that made him on par with an above-average officer in the US army, their superiors agreed that their greatest was their ability to sense the most crucial moment of a battle - the moment when everything hung in the balance and a determined effort from either side could make the difference between defeat and victory. Sensing that moment now, James yelled one last order in to the air to the 30 men behind him.

"Charge!"

For a split second, James feared only for an instant that his men would not obey his orders, with the terror of the battlefield gripping their hearts into cowardice. But whatever reservations they had about the bravery of their men, were put to the ground when 30 voices in unison took up raw throated battle cries and began charging at the larger force of cavalry with guns blazing.

James and his men broke into a run down the ravine and slammed in to the enemy horsing like a fist, sending the enemy knights reeling in terror. Though James had never used a saber in his life, his Blackhawk Garra II knives were never always left behind from his last fight. And with his knives in both arms, as he charged forth into the battle, he bend both his arms back up to where they are almost touching his face and he threw them forward with his hands closed with each of his knives clipping open and pointing down at the ground.

With the twirl of his knives as he charged in with an evil blank expression on his face, James soon found himself confronted by two mounted horsemen. Ducking sinuously under a lance thrust with almost little effort, he closed the distance and slashed the front left leg of the horse with a right backslash before he used a fully extended left slash to cut a deep slash into the rider's left leg joint. In result as James continued forth away from the first rider, the horse fell forward and with the rider having a deep slash in his left leg joint, he flew forward a few yards and landed on his back with his left leg bent in a horrifically painful angle. With the first rider left for dead, James charged at the second rider to the right and approached the rider by rolling under the horse to dodge a downward slash from the rider and leaving an agonizing slash in the upper belly of the horse. And as he rolled from underneath the horse, James landed on his shoes before he back flipped and closing his left knife as he left his right knife open in a grip as if he were to give a downward slash of a sword. And as strange as this looked, James back flipped a couple times before his right knife buried itself into the top of the second rider's head and coming out as James continued back flipping over the rider with the blade of his knife almost covered in blood.

As he landed and standing up quickly, he didn't bother dodging another horseman's left slash as he grabbed the horseman's hand and pulled the rider off his horse and directly into the ground head first. With the rider landing on the top of his head, James could already tell that he instantly killed the rider since he heard the rider's neck break just the moment he hit the rider in the chin with his right boot; dislocating the rider's lower jaw downwards entirely. With the sword in the rider's loose left hand pointing upwards, James kicked the sword out of the rider's hand and sent it launching 9 meters into another oncoming horseman's horse that was coming around back at him. The sword went up through the other horse's neck and impaling the rider in the esophagus, and strangely beyond logical reason; the horse kept going past James before it fell in front of itself and falling onto the ground on its left side.

Beside him, the men were fighting with almost suicidal courage against their mounted opponents and James felt a surge of pride as the men showed the results of their short but belligerent rigorous training. Suddenly, a sharp blow caught James on the side of the head. His vision exploded in to a dazzling brief blur as he instinctively rolled on his right shoulder using his movement from the blow. He rolled several meters from where he was hit and when he recovered into a crouched position with the tips of his fingers touching the ground and facing back where he had been hit; he looked up to see the enemy commander looking right at him with fury burning within his eyes at him.

-0-

Glarus Fraser knew he had lost the minute he had led his men into the trap. He could no longer return to the Germanian political court with defeat and shame upon his head. Victory or defeat no longer mattered to him anymore. All he cared about was killing the man who had caused him so much misery.

-0-

James was always ready to take on the enemy, any enemy he could think of. From the grueling numbers of random street brutes, to even special military units, taking down a commander was a rare albeit moment for him at this moment in time. But no matter what Glarus was going to do, James was about to kick some can of retaliating whoop-ass, in spite of receiving a sharp blow.

So as to start off with, James sat up and in one movement; he jumped up and spun horizontally with his legs going down like the chain on a chainsaw. And with Fraser caught off guard from James' seemingly light-speed recovery, Fraser felt the right side of his head get terribly struck like if someone picked up a tree trunk and swung it onto him. What Fraser didn't feel from the kick as he fell to his left was that the kick that James did was a combination of a Wushu butterfly kick and a sick looking recovery jump when an opponent is down on the ground. With the right side of his face covered in a partially bloody shoe mark, Fraser banged the left side of head against a tree trunk as he fell to his left and making him fall backwards into the opening. And once he was out in the open, as James just about got his left knife back into his left hand, a gunshot from out of nowhere struck Fraser in the right side of his chest and through the back before another shot hit him in the front of the left shoulder and then the upper belly. Struck from three gunshots, Fraser fell backwards and laid sprawled out lifeless and with his eyes still wide open from the gunshots.

Above on the ravine, James looked up to see Wilhelm already reloading his VK3 as he pulled the charging handle back and rotating it up to keep the bolt open as he put in a new magazine. They're eyes met and he gave Wilhelm a brief thumbs up and stood up assess the situation. He could see Iron Handed Otto on the other side of the enemy having a heyday with his broadsword. It seemed that he too, had ordered his men to charge after seeing James. One of the knights looked at James, dropping his sword into the ground and kneeled down pleading for the sake of his life. As James looked around his surroundings, he could see more and more of the enemy throwing their weapons into the ground and surrendered.

Even with all the knights surrendering, the Emerican soldiers were still firing away at the knights even though they were surrendering. Finally, James shouted "Ceasefire! Ceasefire!" before the gunfire stopped and the men reply back with small impression of order. As looking at the small group of survivors kneeling on the ground, the Emericans stiffened in pride knowing they had beaten a far superior force than their own. An eerie silence filled the battlefield as no one knew what to say or do next.

"Bring out the ropes and start binding the prisoners." James commanded, and the silence was shattered as the Emerican troops cheered and yelled together in a cacophony that drowned out all other sound. In the end, the Emericans only had 5 wounded but no deaths thanks to the superior rate of fire and firepower of the VK3 battle rifle and also how carefully planned the defense was. Meanwhile, Glarus Fraser's cavalry force lost almost all of their men in the fight. More than 274 Germanian soldiers died in the attack while about 26 were captured with some being badly wounded.

-0-

**Author's notes: Before I end my share of words, I did have to take my inspiration of the towns in this story from a couple French and Swedish names combined with German names. But in contrast, the story will have most of these cities and towns renamed to American names created from James later on. (Do take note that I gave you a spoiler alert).**

**Anyways though, thanks for reading, if you **_**guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story, please leave a review if you can. Until then, farewell.**_


	6. Chapter 6: Zündung des Feuers

Disclaimer: I do not own Familiar of Zero

Emerican Odyssey

_**Chapter 6: **__**Zündung**__**des Feuers**_

-0-

**8:25pm, 2 days later…**

It was already two nights after Sir Fraser and his units have been defeated. The two moons in the sky glow with perfect brilliance like every other night. The valley overlooking the outpost is quiet at night…as the guards of a provincial garrison outpost were well protected against the midnight cold. Fires were lit in braziers all along the stone crests and the sentries gathered around them. Most of the sentries were made up of newly trained recruits and they showed their youth through muttered wisecracks and occasional sip of prohibited booze. Against the gatehouse of the silent fortress, one of the guards looked up and peered into the darkness.

"I thought I heard some horses out there." he said.

Two more guards left the warmth of their brazier to stand by him. They squinted across the horizon and sure enough, a pair of small dark shadows were galloping at full pace towards the silent fortress.

"Probably ours." One of them said.

"Maybe, should we fetch the lord?"

The question made the three soldiers pause. Lord Philips specifically ordered the outfit to never to rouse him from his sleep unless it was for an emergency. As the small group of riders were most likely a routine report messengers, neither of the soldiers saw any need to rouse the irritable lord from his beauty sleep.

"Approaching the gate!" a voice shouted below them.

"What's the password?" one of the sentries shouted back.

"Password? What bloody password?" replied the voice down below.

"Your commander should've been given a password before your departure!"

"Commander? Colonel Fraser is DEAD!

"What?"

"We were ambushed by those damned peasants. We were the only ones who managed to make it alive and now those rebels are hot on our heels. Open the gate!"

"Oh god!" said one of the sentries. If there was any time to call an emergency now was it. "Wait there, one of us will get the Lord for confirmation."

"Confirmation!?" the voice screamed. "Those bastards are right behind us!"

All three sentries looked up to see about several hundred rebels across the horizon approaching towards the castle screaming and shouting shrill battle cries. The very sight of them drove terror into the hearts of the sentries. The worst of all; the rebels were closing in…fast.

"Open, open up, for god sake open up!" said the voice screaming.

"Open the gate." said one of the sentries. The other two looked up at him with worried expressions on their faces.

"Shouldn't we wait for-"

"Those are nobles down there! If we let them die you can be sure as hell their families are going to nail our HEADS into the ground for letting them die!"

The last argument seemed to be the clincher and the heavy locking bars were heaved away and the gate was opening to get the riders inside. But the gate opened just about too late.

As the gates were just almost open, gunshots erupted with bullets ricocheting off the stone wall and kicked up dirt as it scared the horses of the riders all at once. With the combination of the bullets kicking up dirt and ricocheting off the stone wall and with the horses being heavily spooked; the riders couldn't regain control of their horses. It wasn't long before one of the riders got hit in the right elbow from a stray bullet followed by another stray bullet striking the rider in the hip. The rider fell to the side of his horse in excruciating pain from the bullets before the horse took off in a random direction and was never to be seen again.

As for the other rider besides taking a bullet to the left shoulder blade, he managed to rush his way into the castle with a bit of control returned to ride his horse. But that was too late too.

-0-

A few moments later, the Emerican troops were already closing in within the range of the sentry's spear throwing range. The gates were already halfway closed and it wasn't long before a group of 16 Emericantroops got underneath the closing gate and slowly began opening it again with all the strength combined from all 16 men. With the men holding the gate open at about no more than 6 feet high, the rest of the new 119 Emerican troops along with James had to hurry and get inside the castle before the men lose their strength to keep the gate up.

"Hurry up gentlemen, storm the front!" James shouted as the men kept letting off gunshots as they made their way into the castle. Pandemonium broke loose as the Emericantroops opened fire at any Germanian Imperial soldier on sight. There were also mages in the outpost but none of them were able to cast a single spell as bullets riddled all over their body before they can even open their mouths to chant. As one of the mages was about to fall, one of the rebels Emerican troops charged at a mage and sank his combat knife straight at the mage's face. The result was downright brutal as blood jet out of the mage's mutilated mouth and nose with the Emerican's knife getting almost completely covered in the mage's blood.

As soon as the firing mellowed down a notch and with every other Emerican troopwithin the castle, the battle turned into a bloody melee. The Emerican troopers all over the place were exchanging blood and gore with the guards and any soldier the Emericans saw on sight. Some of the troops with their VK3s were still firing off shots to give their comrades a higher and faster kill rate. The troopers were hitting the enemy soldiers straight in the chest making them stop and drop on the floor allowing the fist or knife-wielding troopers to land the killing strikes.

At the same time, some of the sentries who happened to be sleeping on the watch towers were awaken by the commotion and, upon seeing that they are under attack, they immediately raised their spears to hurl down at the attackers. However… they were not able to launch their spears as their heads were peppered with lead bullets. A handful of Emericantroops managed to find a way up to the watch towers and onto the ramparts. Once on top, the Emericans were providing firing support for their comrades down below while storming the ramparts at the same time.

Inside one of the noble's quarters, Sir Philips was awoken by the gunshots and he immediately got his armor on and grabbed his sword wand before heading outside. Once he was outside, he was shocked by what he saw. The entire garrison base was under attacked by what he sees as a large group of armored feeble peasants. Just immediately, he barked orders at the Germanian soldiers around him.

"All men! Man your battle stations!" Philips said, "Chase those bastards out and kill them all!"

The soldiers around Philips heard his order but they found it impossible to do due to the intense gunshots and smoke that impaired both hearing and the line of sight for everyone alike. As Philips looked around him, he saw the soldiers struggling to comply with his order with great difficulty because of all the smoke and lead flying by. As he was about to call a soldier, a wall of bullets from out of nowhere hit the soldier when he was about to call through the smoke. He was able to shield before he cast a wind spell and blew away the smoke in front of him. It was, however, by pure unluckiness that he found himself standing in front of one of the rebels. The rebel was wearing what looked like a dark olive green military cap and a uniform in the same color as if it were successfully trying to blend with the forestland environment. The rebel appeared to be carrying a rather long musket that was made of…metal?

But it was impossible for Philips to make out the rebel's weapon and attack. Philips didn't realize that the rebel was pointing his weapon directly at him. Before he knew it, Philips was hit with a small and deadly 7.62x51mm lead bullet from the rebel and he was more than instantly killed after taking the shot through his chin and right out his spine connected to his skull. The now dead Philips fell on the ground as a pool of blood encircled his wounds all over his body. The rebel kept on fighting against the guards as he didn't recognized the mage's high ranking profile and treated it as if this was an ordinary mage.

-0-

By early morning, the Emericans had taken the castle and released the kidnapped families and hostages from the castle prisons. As the townspeople of Salvika and Valunich reunited with their long lost families, James couldn't help but smile at the tears of joy his men had shed. It also broke James' heart however, where every time families looked desperately among the crowd for their loved ones only to never find them.

And pretty soon, the rumors of the rebel victory spread like wildfire. A mysterious man saved Salvika and Valunich and took the fortress of one of the Germanian political party's provincial governor. As the captive hostages were returned to their families, those doubtful rumors had become exhilarating truths. But the hostages also carried a "gift" carefully prepared by James. It was a manifesto that captured and inflamed the hearts of its readers.

"_Human beings, as a species, wish to take pride in their country. But many of us now can only feel the burning shame of oppression. Imperialism can no longer mask the true face of this government. We are deliberately being oppressed, starved and killed by our own political party rulers. Imperialism is a vital weapon employed by these rulers. It's a more important weapon than a spear, a sword, a cannon or a first rate army. It's more destructive than a bullet or an artillery shell, or even magic. While those weapons are created and owned by this government, they are harmless without people willing to use them. And the ruling class, the nobility who profit from human suffering care only about expanding their wealth, controlling our lands. Understand that their power lies only in their ability to convince us that our own war, oppression and exploitation are in our interest. They understand that their wealth is dependent on their ability to convince the working class to die for them. Our real enemies are not those living in Tristain whose names or policies we don't even know; the real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the Kings who starve us when it's profitable, the government who deny us freedom when it's profitable, the lords who take away our families when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred miles away. They are right here in front of us on the homefront. They are in their capitals getting richer and stronger by the minute while we can only get poorer and weaker. If we organize and fight with our sisters and brothers we can stop this oppression, we can stop this government and create a better nation."_

Afterwards furthermore, James Maximilian Kaiser (official known by everyone else as James) also sent out copies of a bunch of importantly recovered documents she and her troops have found in the town hall, revealing how the political leaders of each and every Germanian political party's regime and rule are already beginning their conquest to subjugate and persecute everyone in Germania in order to rebuild the nation. As for James finding out about the beginning of the war, he realized he had already fueled the fire for the war to begin.

But stressing about the war was not his concern nor for others. The reason being was because the Germanian political parties' armies are still in the northwest. How does James know? Because upon the next week, James got addition information from the locals that the armies are beginning at a slow political start because of the death toll from the bombing 3 weeks ago. But it wasn't just the bombing alone, the bombing crippled the main chain in command of the military and also wiped out the monarchy's rule; this was because out of the 280,000 people who were killed in the explosion, 1,500 of them were both high ranking officers and political personnel. This meant that the restoration of Germania was impeded with the lack of the required amount of officers needed to command a new political power in the northwest against the levels of panic, confusion, and chaos from the news of the monarchy being wiped out.

So because of the impediment in the northwest, most of the entirety of the Germanian army is concentrated in the northwest, where as the east is not quite a concern yet because neither of the political powers trying to restore the nation are not establish in that region of Germania yet. As an intelligent prophecy, the political Germanian leaders are most likely still trying to get themselves together with the addition of a bunch of royalist dispatches keeping the east in check until the political leaders can get their military movements established in the east. This may be the reason why the east has small but gigantic dispatches because of the political parties' trust lying in their military's hands to watch what is happening in the east. To James' expertise to his prophecy, if he can find and wipe out the rest of the dispatches in the east, he might be able to suggest an alliance with other Germanian parties to form Emerica's government. But it may not be a good idea, even though James and the Emericans have guns, he is keened to not allow herself and her supporters to trust anyone; even if they were anti-royalist or other rebels. It just proves too dangerous to trust other international factions.

However nevertheless, the Emericans are going out at a faster start than James had expected to be. With the people under the Emerican control are beginning to have the will to support the needs of founding a new government. And before long, the new Emerican government becomes secretly established to support the people's needs for a new nation. And shortly, the new government began passing freedoms and civil rights to the people like never before, and it wasn't long before other areas near Salvika and Lyon-Valunich began starting unrest after unrest against the attempt of Germanian political party establishments in the east and in some parts of the northwest. At this point, the revolution was now at full steam ahead.

-0-

Meanwhile, at Salvika…

So far it has been 5 days since the victory and the rebellion is in a pinch. 300 troops isn't clearly enough to take on the Germanian political parties' armies head on, so laying low for the time being is the best option possible. The big problem is manpower. James knows that the rebellion is obviously outnumbered in combat at the moment and the only chance in survival is to conduct irregular raids on enemy convoys. So he and the new Emerican government so far have easily disguise the rebellion as nothing but a simple rabble of bandits hiding in the forests, but it was never put to use since this option defeated the purpose of having a government in the first place.

Currently, a handful of people from Salvika have gone into the woods to create underground silos at James' proposal for the construction of the silos by Wilhelm's command. These silos in question are as large as the entire room of a weapon forge and are actually based on the terrorist tunnel network which James had known about many times from documentary films about American soldiers' tour of duty in the Middle East. Wilhelm has instructed the people (especially the masons and the carpenters living in Salvika) on the natures and characteristics of this tunnel network by the command of James. Considering the simplicity of the Hispania's tunnel network, as with all of their contraptions and structures, creating this kind of earthen work is downright easy for the town's masons and carpenters.

Unlike the terrorist tunnels back in James' world, however, this isn't actually a network of tunnels. Instead, the silos act as storage for the weapons being created for the Emericans as well as the manufacturing equipment. Consequently, the production of VK3s has been stopped for the moment. Production of these weapons and its ammunition will resume within the confines of these silos and a thoroughly designed heat vent is also built with the silo so as to let the heat from the underground forge out. Production of weapons that Salvika has been producing like the swords, armors and shields will still be carried out in Salvika's weapon forges. The combination of the improvised natural camouflage netting provided by the forest as well as the underground nature of the silos makes it impossible to be discovered. Heck, Klara can bet that every army around the world won't even think that such a thing exists underground of a forest. While James is the one that introduced this new type of structure to the people of Salvika, it is actually Wilhelm that is currently supervising the construction of these underground silos.

As for James, back in Valunich, he is taking his primary part in the Emericans by being the current head of the government; or the president. But it's not just being the head of the new government; he is making the whole government go to work from the inside out from its 2-week development just a couple days prior to his victory. Despite its short development time, the government was able to cope its sudden beginning despite missing a bit of its required political members. And besides, James will bring the rest of the government into full swing once the Emericans are big enough where it has established itself as a military power. In a nutshell, James has only set up the 'demo version' of the government, not the 'full version' of it yet.

Speaking of government, James, Wilhelm, and James' sergeants are all seated and in front of them is a table with the map of Germania drawn on it. They are currently discussing on the course of action that they should take in the upcoming assault which will be carried out at dawn.

"Our target is one of the few remaining but large Royalist Army Garrison situated about 200 miles west than north of Salvika." James began, "Considering that, we will need a lot of troops to storm the place and take it over. Thankfully, we got a great deal of 400 new soldiers just a few days ago and they have joined us in our rebellion and they're now being trained in Salvika for battle until the next week."

"But can we count on them to be trained within less than a week?" one of the sergeants asked.

"You can't simply expect a soldier to know how to handle a gun and fight within less than a week; we can count on them as long as they finished their required 2-week training." Wilhelm otherwise replied to the sergeant.

"Well, moreover though, our plan is to deploy all our soldiers in Salvika and link up with our new comrades there." James continued, "However, the problem is how we can move our troops to Salvika without being spotted and, from there, move a combined force of about 600 troops from Salvika towards the garrison base without being spotted as well."

"That's easy." one of the sergeants said with a sign of friendly advice, "There's a neglected pathway stretching from south Salvika up to the Royal Garrison Base known as the Feldberg pass. In addition, the Feldberg pass is a bit sunk into the ground combined with dense pine trees all around the area. This altogether makes it look nothing more than a gigantic trench filled with trees that are spread out enough to let about 60 troops pass through easily at any time."

"Thanks for your pensive support on this," Wilhelm replied, "But with all due respect though, how are we going to position our troops and equipment into proper battle positions especially the new cannons that are undergoing production?"

"The Feldberg pass ends up to where the Feldberg Mountain is located." the sergeant continued, "And about the mountain, it is overlooking the Garrison base; giving us a perfect view to attack with cannon fire. You also don't need to worry as the royalist soldiers stationed at the garrison base have completely left the mountains with a blind eye. Even the mountain is covered in thick foliage, which makes it even easy for us to hide there and fire the cannons from there, which will allow us to hit anything inside the Garrison base without needing to worry about the walls since viewing the individual buildings like the quarters and armory inside the fortress from up there is almost a top-view sightseeing."

James thought about this for a moment as he further secretly tested his new sergeants. The scouts he sent to probe the garrison base have said something about the mountain near the garrison base and other natural topographical features surrounding it. James knows for a fact that he and his troops will get slaughtered if they just charged in without a plan. Even though the scouts' reports haven't mentioned the geography around the garrison, the garrison base that James is going to attack showed that their target is well defended with thick walls and high fortified watchtowers. Fortunately, he can turn out this situation in his favor.

"Currently, there are about 1,000 enemy soldiers stationed within the garrison base and about a couple hundred of them are mages, correct?" James asked.

All the sergeants nodded and James took them all as a 'yes.'

"Alright, now that makes this interesting. Let's get to the main stuff now." James said as he laid out another map detailing the topography of the garrison base and the surrounding environment.

Upon getting the map out, James wrote a dash-line circle towards the rightmost part of the map at a section of the garrison base's walls facing the mountain.

"This is the section of the garrison base's walls that faces the base." James said, "And as you can see, we won't be able to attack the base itself unless we bypass the walls."

"So what's the plan Herr Sturmbannführer?" one of the more respectful sergeants asked.

"We need to deploy our cannons here." James said as he draws another dash-line circle at the line marks in the map next to the section of the wall representing the mountain's ridges. But the one who further continued was the same sergeant who suggested about Feldberg Mountain and pass, and he was allowed to talk again from the nod of James "As you can see, the mountain's ridges are long enough to allow us to at least deploy eight of our cannons and hit the enemy's positions without attacking the walls. The mountain is tall enough for this task."

"But wait, aren't cannons too heavy?" one of the other sergeants asked, "How will we position them in time?"

"The new FHA-10 guns being made are mounted on a special 4-wheeled steel carriage." James replied, "And the wheels on the carriage are especially wide to reduce ground pressure – or otherwise allow the artillery piece to be lighter - and improve mobility in moving it through difficult and unstable terrains."

James continued furthermore "Now, we will need to organize our troops in four groups and position them around the garrison base. Our scouts didn't report any sightings of any nearby patrols, which meant that the garrison base doesn't have any nearby reinforcements at the moment in the case of the attack. I believe that most of the entirety of the Germanian armies are concentrated in the west; raining their rules on the nearest western kingdom, but slowly as according to the loss of a bit of their majority of officers in the Vindobona bombing."

James then drew another dash-line circle at a big section of the west displaying the possibility of the concentrated areas of the Germanian armies which is very far away from Salvika and Lyon-Valunich.

"And as you can see, their armies are too far away from the garrison base." James explained, "Which will mean that we don't need to worry about any wary patrols jumping into the attack and give the army a heads up. And Sturmoffizieres, this will be a heavy full-blown ground assault; so we will need all the firepower we can get and concentrate it against enemy ground targets. The overall plan is to have the artillery guns open fire first with the targets being the expensive-looking structures which I believe is housing the officers there. As we all know, officers have a more highly advance fighting capabilities, so taking them out first is top priority. The firing ranges of the mage are quite short compared to our cannons and VK3s; which means that we don't need to worry of counter-fire from them. Once all of the high-value targets have been destroyed, that's when we will move in our infantry to mop up any remaining enemy forces inside."

James then reached for the red pen on the map and then drew a red slash line at the southern part and western part of the walls which indicate the gates.

"Once the artillery guns did their job," James said, "all we simply need to do is charge in and the enemy will still be reeling due to the artillery barrage the moment we got inside. The enemy likely didn't anticipate any sort of attack due to the fact that they are only a group of dispatches and their attention is most likely distracted from the political issues they are facing with each other in all the territories in the west, which gives us a chance to deal a devastating back stab attack."

James, Wilhelm, and the Sergeants continued to discuss more about the upcoming assault as the time passed in Valunich.

-0-

A week later, at the town of Salvika…

3:01am, 3 hours before dawn…

Wilhelm has all 400 troops in the town that he supervised and trained for battle all arrayed in a rectangular rank-and-file formation typical. In just a span of a week, Wilhelm managed to at least instill the troops in the concepts of military discipline by command of James. While they didn't get it fully, at least they managed to fare well in battle after the training she gave to them when James was not always in town. During the training with the rifles, the troops were pleased with the newly-arrived weapons and began to show signs of eagerness to go into battle.

As he is overseeing the order within the troops, a man walked up to him to notify him of something.

"Herr Sturmbannfuhrer, they're here." the man said while pointing at the direction where troops came into view.

Wilhelm turned around to see where the woman is pointing, and from that direction, Wilhelm saw a large crowd of troops (about all 200 of them) and a handful of metal carts carrying what appears to be the FHA-10 artillery guns on them, while some of the carts (which were wooden) were containing a bulk of provisions he can't identify from afar because of the canvas covering. When the convoy eventually reached the town, Wilhelm can tell that the troops came from Valunich as he saw James' sergeants in the crowd armed with an VK3 battle rifle and wearing the same military cap and military uniform as the other troops as well as James wearing the same uniform as well with the addition of an 'E' place on the central front of his military cap.

After all the troops have go into their uniforms as well as being armed with their new VK3 rifles and, as well as their new combat knifes; James further ordered all Emerican troops to move out.

-0-

Meanwhile, at the Royal Army Garrison base…

5:05am…

The Emericans, boosted with additional troops from Salvika, is almost now a thousand man resistance group. The great boost of 400 new recruits really did a big boost to the group given the reason why they had joined in; because of the release of the Emerican manifesto explaining the sole objective of Germanian establishment and its issues.

The Emericans arrived at their intended location after 2 hours and almost a half of trudging the Feldberg pass. Just like what the sergeant said, the pass turned out the way it is. It is deep enough that it allowed concealing anything that moved within its confines and wide enough to allow a platoon-sized group to pass at once while the dense pine trees hid the Emericans from anyone from seeing them from the main road.

Once the Emericans exited the pass, they encountered no trouble in scaling up the Feldberg Mountain which was just about a dozen meters away from the garrison base. The pass ends where the mountain begins.

The garrison base is extremely quiet. However, royal soldiers can still be seen because of their armor being faintly illuminated by the partial remaining moon still in the sky. Thankfully, their ranks are rather thin at the moment making the garrison base an easy target for a heavy ground assault.

Seeing the situation boding well for them, James ordered the main infantry attack force to mass up just a few meters away from the gates so they can immediately finish any remaining enemy forces that happened to survive the incoming artillery barrage from them once directly storming the base is ordered. The infantry attack force is divided into four company-sized attack force numbering 150 troops each. This literally translates into 600 troops for the main attack force. While the remaining 200 or so-called artillery personnel are left up in the mountains busy preparing the cannons for the bombardment. The garrison base has four entrances and each company is positioned at each entrance. The four attack groups are led by 2 sergeants per each attack group. James' company will take the front door, while another group will take the rear, and another will take the left, the last group will take the right. James chose this particular forced entry approach in order to take advantage of the element of surprise to the fullest. The enemy doesn't know an attack is underway on them which make a sneak attack the best option to lessening losses. All four companies will attack once the artillery barrage died down so as to prevent casualties due to friendly fire from the artillery guns.

Meanwhile, up in the mountains, the artillery personnel are busy setting up the howitzers. All in all, the black smiths of Salvika combined with Lyon-Valunich's technicians were able to craft a total of 24 VAM-10 artillery guns for this operation. Aside from it, the so-called VAM-10 (Volkspartei Artillerie Modell 10, aka People's Artillery Model 10) guns are actually being designed off of the Flak 36 AA gun; specifically proposed by James' expertise of weaponry from his world. In every single way, the VAM-10 is a knock-off of the artillery gun it was based on. Modifications included a more bottleneck looking shell that allowed more room for gunpowder to give the 88mm shell at velocity of 8,000 feet per second; giving it an effective range of about 21,000 feet as opposed to the higher 39,000 feet of the former, along with the addition of a more simple and improved iron sights for placing precision at small targets, a rate of fire of 16 rounds per minute with a well trained crew, and even though it lacked the hydraulic recoil mechanism as of the Flak 36, the gun itself had a anchor spikes mounted on all four sides to allow it to anchor itself in place once the gun was not mobile. Despite these changes, the VAM had almost the same proportions as the base artillery gun it was based on though. As such, it took the artillery personnel almost seventeen minutes to fully set up the artillery guns which are now all ready to fire a barrage that can rival a cannon broadside of a flying warship.

Several sergeants and a handful of the artillery personnel who aren't participating in setting up the artillery guns stood guard around the artillery pieces to provide over watch support. They are leading the Support Team whose main task is to ensure the safety of the artillery guns by preventing enemy forces from closing in assuming that some of them managed to pass through the Infantry Attack companies.

One of the sergeants was accompanying the personnel along with the other sergeant in manning the artillery guns in the mountains. A troop then went up and spoke to him.

"Herr Sturmbannfuhrer, all cannons are ready to fire." the trooper said.

The other sergeant then walked up to him to notify her about the cannons.

"Will we be using the fragmentation shells in the first salvo?" the other sergeant asked.

"Yes." The sergeant replied.

The other sergeant then saluted and turned on the trooper who reached the sergeant first.

"You heard the Sturmbannführer," the other sergeant said, "Tell the artillery crews to use fragmentation shells in the first salvo."

The trooper nodded and saluted before going towards the battery of the now properly emplaced cannons.

The sergeants watched as the artillery crews man the artillery guns before looking at his wrist watch. When the minute hand struck twenty-five, the sergeant just barked a couple words…

"FIRE ALL!"

Just a moment after the sergeant barked the order, the entire mountain ridge erupted with fire as the line of 24 artillery guns unleashed their payloads on the unsuspecting garrison base in a devastating volley. And within the next few seconds, the entire garrison base was engulfed in a bombardment barrage.

-0-

Meanwhile, on one of the watch towers of the Royal Army Garrison base (a few moments before the bombardment)…

A guard in plate armor made a yawn as he reclined on the chair inside the watch tower. It was a calm and boring day that passed today. As he reclined on the chair, he let the spear on his grip to rest on the wall. Currently, there's nothing good or interesting to do. The previous regime has been sadly annihilation which means not only was there the creation of the new political parties trying to replace the fallen monarchy, but the political parties are both militaristically and politically disorganized without the help from the documents that were stored in Vindobona's sacred library that are important to restoring Germanian rule. The commoners obviously won't be able to put up a show either.

Just as he is about to close his eyes to have a little nap, he heard a whistling sound rang in the air. He was about to get up but he was not able to do so as the watch tower he is in was completely blown to pieces by a 88mm cannon shell killing him and causing the now burning watch tower to crumble down. Within minutes, the garrison base was thrown into chaos.

-0-

Meanwhile, outside the Germanian Army Garrison (at the front gate)…

5:26am…

James and some of her sergeants watched with satisfaction as the garrison base is pounded by artillery fire and he can easily hear the screams of the Germanian soldiers inside who are being torn apart by the shells slamming in. Although he can't see the enemy soldiers being torn apart by the shells due to the walls, he has an easy time picturing in her mind what happens to them the moment an artillery shell exploded near them or worse…directly on them. The results are quite gory but James and her sergeants weren't fazed by it all considering that James had seen much more aghast and gruesome damage from his duel with Guiche, the gruesome murdering of other troops, Sir Lossif, and so many others.

-0-

Meanwhile, inside the Germanian Army Garrison base…

5:26am…

Germanian soldiers are rampantly running wildly in any direction that their feet faced. Many of the soldiers weren't lucky as they ran straight into where the shells landed or at least…where the shells exploded. The shells fired by the VAM-10 artillery guns in the salvo are all fragmentation shells. Fragmentation shells are designed for the anti-personnel role and bombing the garrison base is the best place to use them. The fragmentation shells proved themselves to be more than worth the effort of firing them as just one of them managed to wipe out somewhere around 40 troops in one blast. The Germanian soldiers tend to bump into each other as they ran which made them easy targets for the artillery guns and their heavily plated armor didn't do any good to shrug off the shrapnel from the shells which just pass through their armor like a needle cutting through cotton.

Inside one of the noble's quarters, Sir Hanxleden was awoken by the explosions and he immediately wore his armor and grabbed his sword wand before heading outside. Once he was outside, he was shocked by what he saw. The entire garrison base is being pounded by what he sees as artillery. Just immediately, he barked orders at the Germanian soldiers around him.

"All men! Man your battle stations!" Hanxleden said, "Chase those bastards and kill them all!"

The soldiers around Hanxleden heard his order but they found it impossible to do due to the intense artillery bombing. As Hanxleden looked around him, he saw the soldiers struggling to comply with his order with great difficulty. As he was about to call a soldier, a howitzer shell slammed into the ground and hit the soldier he is about to call through the shrapnel. He was able to shield himself thanks to the wind spell he casted. It was, however, pure luck that he was able to pull it off. He didn't realize that the shells can do such a thing and his instinct is what saved him from sharing the same fate as the soldier that got killed with it. The soldiers around him, on the other hand, weren't so lucky. A handful of them died outright while the remaining where wounded by the shrapnel.

As Hanxleden saw everything transpire in just a few seconds, a soldier came up to him.

"Sir! All the other commanders have been killed by the bombardment!" the soldier said.

This further infuriated Hanxleden. How didn't he know that such an attack like this will come?

In order to minimize losses and mount a counter attack, Hanxleden issued an order.

"All troops! Open the gates!" Hanxleden barked, "Kill the bastards!"

The remaining soldiers around Hanxleden immediately complied and opened the gates.

However…this will prove to be a not so good idea.

-0-

**Meanwhile, in the mountains…**

**5:34am…**

The sergeants saw the gates being opened wide which prompted her to relay an order to the artillery crews.

"ALL ARTILLERY GUNS CEASE FIRE!"

The artillery crews complied with the order and stopped firing.

As the last of the artillery crews stopped their job, the two sergeants being amongst them, stared at the areas just outside the fortress.

"Time for a bar fight." The sergeant commented.

-0-

Meanwhile, back at the Germanian Army Garrison base (right gate)…

5:35am…

The Germanian soldiers were able to open the gates. However, just as the first soldier went outside, she heard a shout.

"ALL UNITS OPEN FIRE!"

It was one of the sergeants who barked the order as the sound of gunshots erupted right in front of the garrison base's right gate and the Germanian soldiers who happened to be standing there were shredded to pieces from the bullets.

The sergeant let out a stream of bullets with her own VK3s while the troopers accompanying her also opened fire. It was a devastating volley of an enormous volume of high-powered cartridges pouring over the unlucky group of enemy soldiers. The enemy soldiers were either riddled with bullet holes or were finished off by the gunfire just before they even hit the floor dead.

Just as the last of the soldiers were shot dead, the sergeant's attack group advanced towards the main gate of the garrison base which notified for the rest of the groups to advance just like them; right according to plan.

-0-

Meanwhile, at the Germanian Garrison base's front gate…

5:40am…

The Germanian soldiers inside the fortress managed to get out of the damned base alive. However, that didn't mean that they escaped death.

To their horror, they saw a company-sized rebel group arrayed in a rank and file formation with the troops in front of the formation kneeling in one knee while those in the back stood in a shooting stance. The same thing to both lines is that they are all armed with so-called said guns aimed straight at them.

Within just a minute after the Germanian soldiers have exited the front gate, James barked an order loud and clear.

"FIRE!"

The two layers of infantry in James' company, known as Company A, fired their guns and the Germanian soldiers who happened to be at the front gate fell dead on the ground without a prayer. The remaining Germanian soldiers who also exited through the front gate were torn to shreds from the hail of bullets fired by the rebels.

-0-

Meanwhile, inside the Germanian Garrison base…

5:42am…

Companies B and C, led by two other sergeants per company respectively, and attacked the base simultaneously in a pincer formation. They easily tore through the Germanian soldiers that opened the gates and continued their advance. It was their lucky morning this time as they didn't encounter any organized enemy formation since the enemy, somehow, chose to funnel themselves on the gates where A and D companies are positioned. To cut it short, companies B and C are leading their respective companies in attacking the enemy's exposed rear.

Hanxleden, for the first time, found himself completely screwed up in a battle that he can't win. But in reality, this is his third time in a battle and he has never experienced something like this horrific and fast at all. The only reason why he became a high-ranking military officer within the Germanian Army is because of his loyalty to the Germanian ideology. However, that didn't translate that he wanted to become good military commander when it comes to military tactics and strategies. Overall, he is doomed in this cursed base.

As rage overcame his senses due to his situation, Hanxleden roared in a fit of fury and immediately zeroed on a rebel soldier who is wearing clothes that had a dark olive coloring that seemed to be blending well with the forest. He poised his sword wand to cast a deadly wind slash spell but the rebel soldier he is aiming at had a teammate that was unnoticeable close by. And just as he was about to complete the charging of his spell, a bullet from out of nowhere whizzed by his right hand and the bullet left behind a burn mark on Hanxleden's fingers. And with the loss of his grip on his sword wand, this caused him to cancel his spell as bullet struck him in the right chest and which caused him to back off away from his sword wand in front of him. As he backed up with his right hand on his chest wound, a hailstorm of bullets from out of nowhere besides a few rebels in site struck him in the shoulders, the arms, and even for a few of the bullets to pass right by his left ear and leave a tiger-pattern burn mark. And before long when the hailstorm of bullets finished, a shout from one of the troops rang out "Vanity through the Emerican Dream!" before a gunshot from the rebel rang out and struck Hanxleden in the forehead. With a devastating bullet hole through Hanxleden's head, he fell onto the ground as a small pool of blood encircled his pierced head and where his wounds are on his body.

-0-

Meanwhile, inside the Royal Garrison base…

7:00am…

The fighting has now ended. Contrary to the attack on the outpost, the Emericans didn't suffer a single casualty in the battle thanks to the carefully planned battle strategy that James and his sergeants laid out. All around the now captured garrison base, the Emerican troopers are now busy scouring around the base to find any enemy soldiers that are hiding. After two hours of searching, they didn't find any. It seems that all of the enemy soldiers killed during their assault are the entire enemy stationed at the base. The bodies of the dead enemy soldiers are being gathered at one place and said bodies are being stacked like logs. There are less than 442 bodies stacked all together while the rest where either blasted to pieces by the howitzer barrage or are brutally dismembered from the high-volume of fire from the Infantry Attack companies.

Just half an hour ago, the sun casted its morning rays on the garrison base as the flames inside the base are being suppressed by the troopers. The flames burning the base may have been suppressed… but the flames of a new brewing revolution is just burning up with more intensity with each second… and fueled by the hate and desire to prevent the accursed social system that is the source of all of what might've become their miseries.

-0-

**Author's notes: (No comment)**

**Anyways though, thanks for reading, if you **_**guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story, please leave a review if you can. Until then, farewell.**_


	7. Chapter 7: Emerican Zündung

Disclaimer: I do not own Familiar of Zero

Emerican Odyssey

_**Chapter 7: **__**Emerican **__**Zündung**_

-0-

**Meanwhile, at the former Germanian Army Garrison base…**

**12:00pm…**

It's been three weeks ever since the successful attack on the Germanian Army Garrison base and twenty surrounding towns and villages combined together around it immediately rose in violent revolts a few days after it which turned to be successful and the lack of Germanian soldiers within the villages and towns proved to be one of the two biggest factors on the Emerican revolts ending up in success. The other one being that the Emericans supplied the villages and towns that revolted with arms and those same villages and towns have now joined the Emerican's revolution which in turn, boosted the Emerican's strength to about three 300,000 armed soldiers. However, the rebellion did suffer about 200 deaths in their fold over the time-lapse of those three weeks as well, but this is nothing if military calculations are taken into consideration.

The sun was high up in the sky casting hot rays of sunlight as the Emerican soldiers are busy digging the soil around the garrison base which now acted as their headquarters. Even with using their shovels, the work still takes time. The objective of their diggings is to make a trench network encircling the garrison base as a means of adding an extra line of defense. However, the exception is the part of the garrison base facing the mountains from where they placed their VAM-10 artillery guns during the assault three weeks ago. Also, the trench network being made is also designed to be connected to the garrison base through an underground passage being created as well starting from inside the base so as to prevent the troops from being exposed to enemy attack just in case they went outside through the gates. The trenches are about 8 feet deep although there are portions of the trenches where it is only 5 feet deep and these same portions are used as bunkers where the troops can open fire on approaching enemies. These bunkers are armored with thick metal plating found inside the garrison base as well as thick blocks of wood and a troop armed with the new VM-42 machine gun are stationed in the bunker. There are also VAM-10 artillery guns emplaced on the towers of the garrison base and are ready to fire in a moment's notice as they are manned by a three-man artillery crew.

Speaking of the new VM-42 machine gun, the VM was recently made and put into production no more than 14 days ago. Since these so-called 'machine guns' were put into production, only 100 are built so far. This was because James had proposed a newer automatic weapon designed for both offensive and defensive emplacement, and the new VM-42 is actually based on the PKM series General-purpose machine gun and more primarily on the MG42. But unlike the original PKM machine gun and the MG42, it had few modifications and upgrades that made it better weapon thanks to James' expertise. Surprisingly, the upgrades happened to have surprised James in many ways.

The VM-42 (or Volkspartei Maschinengewehr 42, or People's Machine Gun 42) can be considered as more of a modification of the MG42 machine gun, but it is built for only two tactical roles; that is, as both a true squad-level machine gun for mobile infantry, and as a heavy machine gun for defensive emplacements. Its key difference from the parent design is the barrel, which is not intended to be replaced in the field (although it can be removed for inspection and maintenance). The barrel is somewhat heavier than that of the original PKM and the MG42, and has radial cooling ribs. This is enclosed in a steel jacket, which runs up to the muzzle to provide forced air cooling the barrel (a lot like the Lewis Machine gun from World War 1). Cooling air enters the jacket through oval windows at the rear of the jacket, and exits at the muzzle. The rear of the barrel-encasing steel jacket features a permanently attached carrying handle attached underneath the barrel which eliminates the haze effect from hot gases and as protects the line of sight from mirages generated by convection of air heated up by the barrel; thus making the weapon much more reliable and less prone to overheating. With this new type of barrel however, this made the weapon weight more than 29 pounds (approximately 13 pounds heavier than the PKM, and 4 pounds heavier than the MG42). But nevertheless, it had other features; such as a barrel coated in a double layer of nickel to allow it to fire for a long period of time and handle the high-powered 7.62x51mm cartridge, and a heavy bolt to allow the VM-42 to fire with almost no chance of overheating with a fire rate of 800 rounds per minute.

But other than the machine gun, inside one of the rooms of the garrison base that used to be the commander's quarters, James is busy looking at the maps at a table. He is currently seeing if there are any military bases near the garrison base that they just captured. Overall, the purpose of the trenches being made around the captured base is to increase their defenses against a possible attack which is most likely a large human wave attack.

"Good." James said sinister to himself to the enemy, "Everything's going according to plan."

One of the maps in front of James has several scribbles on it. The scribbles range from red x marks to black circles to blue lines. The red x marks represent the towns that joined the rebellion, the black circles represent military bases held by the Germanian Armies and the blue lines represent supply routes to which they can move their weapons and supplies safely. On the map, there are a total of fourteen villages, thirty seven towns, and five cities being marked with a red x, five black circles representing outposts which made James a bit relieved as they're quite small which means that they won't have too much soldiers to wipe out the Emericans in one swipe, and a long blue line connecting Salvika to Valunich in a 200 mile stretch across connecting other towns and cities with each other.

On the bad side, the Emericans are currently a medium size force and is just recently established at least more than a month ago. Being said, the Emericans are somewhat small at the moment and facing a gigantic regular army like the Germanian Army can be a real trouble despite the Germanian Armies' unorganized military command and loose political organization. But James mustn't forget an important detail to the Emerican's luck; almost all the Germanian Armies are all located in the northwest, about 10,000,000 troops all combined in the northwest as compared to 700,000 Germanian troops left in the east. But nevertheless, James can't overconfident himself; he may be in for an unexpected surprise if he makes a careless swift attack on another town. Furthermore, the new troops he is getting by the day (1,000 per day) are still considerable inexperienced at the moment, so James has to rely heavily on micromanagement and asymmetrical warfare tactics to compensate. It's obvious that the Emericans won't be going anywhere without a skilled leader issuing sound orders.

The good side, however, is that the rebellion became popular due to their bold and daring assaults that they carried out against a large bunch of Germanian bases over the course of three weeks. In fact, troops from many villages and towns that happened to be near the bases that they attacked immediately joined the Emericans boosting their numbers in the process. They only need to be sharpened in order to truly bring out their effectiveness in the battlefield. James' sergeants, along with Wilhelm and Iron Handed Otto are acting as support instructors; taking their role being busy at training the troops, especially the newly recruited ones in combat while James' fewer but more trusted officers are busy training the soon-to-be officers on the concepts of battlefield tactics and squad coordination. James is also taking the secondary role of being busy working alongside with the black smiths busy building more weapons for the Emerican's growing number. As for him, he is making overall battlefield strategies for the Emericans in the fight against the Germanian political parties' armies.

James sat down on the chair next to the table where the maps are being laid up and took a few minutes of rest. Progress has been very fast and guaranteed. Production of weapons for the Emericans has gone well and the supply lines have not been compromised as of now. However, the main reason why the supply lines are not being disrupted by the enemy is because these supply lines are located deep in the forests separating Valunich and Salvika as well as the villages and towns that have supported the Emerican's new government. Based on the logic of the Germanian military, they would never keep an eye on the forests as they always consider the supply lines to be roads on open fields. Besides, their weapons are stored and created in the underground silos which all the militaries around the world (Tristainian, Gallian, Albion, Romalian, and especially Germanian) doesn't even think of. With this, it doesn't really matter whether they raid village after village on the purpose of depriving the Emericans with its weaponry as their own weapons aren't even stored there. However, it will be a nice idea if they played along with the enemy. After all, deception is the key to victory in the battlefield. Another advantage if they do this is that the support for the Emericans will give the anti-royal feeling that the Emerican populace is currently giving off. If any of the armies did this like the one they did at Salvika (which James managed to stop in time), all what they need to do is move in and save the people which will allow them to earn their trust and support for the revolutionary effort.

However, the only complain James has on this one will be the loss of life. Clearly, what the armies all over Halkeginia are doing is not any different with that of the Communist. The Communist firmly believes that it fights for the freedom of the downtrodden workers of the world yet they slaughter civilians along the way which is completely disgusting inside out. The armies and nobles around the world, on the other hand, is a bunch of Fascist-like hypocrites that use their absolute control and power which as a means of hiding their heinous crimes; kind of like the three estates in per-revolutionary France, but more corrupted and terrorizing. If James will be casting aside every single piece of his composure, he'll love to murder every monarchy and their corrupted followers with the every right of justice and emancipation for the people. Based on the information that he read from the books from Wilhelm's house and from the ones inside the conquered garrison base, Halkeginia seems to resemble late medieval-era Europe back in his world especially on the grounds of religion and the corrupted absolute rule of other monarchies. To make matters sick as bloody hell, the nobles who run this country are much more of egotistical bastards compared to the ones in his world. Harassing people along with stripping them of their rights completely and leaving the people in famine and poor? This is a clear violation of human life and James hated it. The autocratic rulers in his world both in the medieval-era and the modern world in third-world countries are maybe a bunch of self-serving satins but they are still sane not to leave their own people starving for nothing.

As James is contemplating on his seat, an Emerican trooper came inside the room and saluted him in the Roman right hand salute to inform him of something.

"Herr Sturmbannfuhrer, we received report from our scouts that a force of about several thousand troops has just arrived in the city of Vssen two hours ago from now. The city of Vssen is approximately five hundred kilometers away from the town Praugrad, which joined our cause. Herr Sturmbannfuhrer, the commander in charge of Praugrad's defense requested minor reinforcements in order to repel the suspected Germanian Army's attack there." the troop said.

"How many soldiers do we have at Praugrad?" James asked.

"We have about three hundred soldiers there and about four hundred new soldiers." the trooper replied.

"Are there any troop movements from other Germanian-controlled areas?" James asked another in order to gauge what sort of reinforcements he will need to send.

"Apparently, the Germanian Army seems to be beginning to strengthen their grip on the other areas under their control near Praugrad. Our intelligence says that only the Germanian soldiers stationed in Vssen will be making their move against Praugrad since it's the nearest to Vssen." the trooper replied.

"I see." James replied, "What are the geographical features of Praugrad?"

"The town of Praugrad is situated atop high ground." the trooper replied before continuing, "Estimated elevation from ground level is somewhere between 10 to 20 meters. There isn't much cover to run in from the low ground which made the town easy to defend from high ground unless the Germanian Army deployed their dragon knights or some high-powered artillery. About the dragon knights, we're lucky that they haven't shown up yet."

"I see." James replied, "Tell the commander of Praugrad that supplies, armaments and 300 additional troops will be coming his way as reinforcements. Also tell in the order that he must not make any attack whatsoever and just concentrate on holding the town. I want that town to be under our control as much as possible until an attack can be put together and coordinated on Vssen."

"Understood," the trooper said, "are there any other orders?'

"About that," James added furthermore, "Tell also the Praugrad commander that I'll be sending in a 4-man group of infiltrators that will head for Vssen to carry out an espionage mission there. I recall that he knows the extents of Vssen so I want him to debrief the infiltrator team about Vssen."

James then dismissed the trooper which is an officer after instructing him.

"Understood Mein Herr." the soldier said as he saluted.

James replied with a salute and watched as the officer leave the room.

"Things are going to get serious in the next few days." James commented to himself as he gazed at the map that looked like some sort of a messed-up tick-tack-toe game.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at the road to Praugrad…**

**2:00pm…**

Farmers comprising the Irregulars, also known as the Rear-end Squads, is busy digging at the ground which is the road leading to Praugrad. The Rear-end Squads are named after their task: carry out rear-echelon tasks that the 'regular' members that compose the Emericans will not be able to handle due to their job in combat like handling logistics, setting up traps and other defense infrastructure, and, most importantly, defend the Emerican-controlled areas as an auxiliary unit to the Emerican forces stationed in said areas. Also, unlike the main Emerican fighting force, members of the Rear-end Squads may include children as young as 12 years old provided that they are fit enough. James didn't like this due to the issue regarding child soldiers but he can't let these restrictions get a better hold of her this time around.

On a more important note, the nearest Western Germanian government branded the town of Praugrad to be in the Emericans alongside other villages and towns who sided with the Emericans. Despite almost having a week already, the Germanian army hasn't known yet the name of the rebel faction that they are fighting against since all of their forces stationed in the villages and towns that have been rebelled against have been wiped out down to the last soldier which gave them the perception that the Emericans are strong considering that their forces that have been wiped out also contained mages. This led to the Western Germanian political parties to simply adapt a passive strategy at the moment until their enemy has been thoroughly gauged. They didn't like this setup but they don't have any choice but this.

"Phew." the farmer exclaimed after he managed to dig a hole in the ground.

Suddenly, a cart containing barrels known as the Ammonia trap arrived on the area and the driver of the cart went down from the cart. These Ammonia traps are barrels filled with bleach and ammonia gas combined with gunpowder that made them dangerous especially at the fact that they are all fully loaded with one of the most deadliest poison gasses from James world; Chlorine Gas. Used in the horrors of World War 1, it was the most commonly used poison gasses used on every faction in World War 1 along with the more expensive and harder to make but deadlier Mustard Gas. Since Chlorine Gas needed bleach (which was a common household laundry product) and Ammonia gas (since it can come from waste water, or extremely dirty water), the barrels had to have to be thinly airtight with a thin layer of brittle iron. A single ammonia trap has the possibility of wiping around 10 to 30 troops in one blast alone, whereas its full potential killing power lying in its chlorine gas can kill 50 to 130 troops in the thicket of the gas if certain conditions are met. In large numbers, these chemical explosives can rip down even the largest attack forces in almost an instant.

"Alright everyone, let's rig the soil with these." the farmer who drove he cart said as he pointed at the barrels.

All of the farmers in the area, twenty of them in total, went to the cart and started unloading the barrels full of explosive ingredients. The barrels were a bit heavy though due to their contents but that doesn't negate their lethality on the battlefield. Currently, the ammonia traps are 'inert' meaning that they won't detonate when triggered by means that will make them explode when they are 'active'. This allows the farmers to place them at ease and without the fear of being blasted to bits or suffocated by the gas's deadly effects if they screwed up.

It took half an hour for the men to place them all up. Before burying the ammonia traps in their holes, the members of the Rear-end Squads activated the demo traps whose triggering mechanism revolve around a specific weight. When the ammonia traps are subjected past the weight that they can sustain, they will detonate outright. This prevents the ammonia traps from exploding prematurely and to ensure that the ammonia traps will be taking down reasonable numbers of their enemies in a go. The men buried the explosives under a half a feet of earth and headed back to Praugrad.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at the underground silos of the town of Heiburg…**

**2:34pm…**

The underground silos of Heiburg follow the same pattern as the ones built in Salvika and Valunich. These underground silos are also just built over the course of the week and these are located in the area that all the armies across Halkeginia won't likely suspect: in the forest just a kilometer away from Heiburg's front door, out of sight and out of mind.

Inside these underground silos, the workers are busy forging more rifles, machine guns and ammunition for the war effort. They are not making artillery guns as these are being built in the underground silos of Salvika. The advantage of making underground silos in Valunich is that the armies all over Halkeginia will never suspect that this area is making weapons due to the fact that this is an agricultural town not a weapon producing one like Salvika. Besides, the supply lines linking Salvika to Valunich are safe from any faction of attacks due to them being surrounded by Emerican-held villages and other areas that are properly defended.

The atmosphere inside the underground silos is quite hot due to the heat generated by the forge which is at least vented out by the same heat exhausts installed on Salvika's underground silos.

The workers continued to toil around the clock although they put more effort in building more ammunition for the guns especially the 7.62x51mm cartridges which is the ammunition for the VM-42 machine gun that is the standard general-purpose machine gun of the Emericans.

"Everybody, keep the effort up." a worker said.

The others inside the silos continued to work but are pouring more effort into their work.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at the road towards Praugrad…**

**10:07pm…**

A battalion-sized group of 300 troops are proceeding towards their destination, Praugrad. The group is using horses and carts in order to carry their equipment, supplies, and cargo which made them look like a caravan of sorts. It's been five hours ever since they left Salvika after packing up with supplies which they will need to deliver there. Furthermore, their more important objective is to reinforce their defense outpost there. Praugrad is located at a chokepoint: atop an elevated area which links to Vssen, a large city currently housing the few of the last Germanian political parties' attack force of the Germanian armies. While just having around several thousand soldiers to defend the area which comprises of them, the local defense outpost in Praugrad, and Praugrad's new troops against an enemy attack force of around four thousand fully-equipped soldiers not to mention the mages accompanying this attack force, they have been trained in the concepts of asymmetrical warfare and it will surely tilt the scales in their favor especially at the fact that the remains of the Germanian Army isn't suited to handling this kind of warfare.

Most of them have participated in the attack on the Germanian Garrison base and they have seen for themselves that this is possible. In fact, they did it with their own hands. Also, they have the guns to fight with and they are now wearing uniform comprising a dark-forestland green tunic with bellowed hip pockets and dark-forestland green breeches, a forestland facewrap (to allow the troops to be kept comfortable from the elements of the forest), black leather fingerless gloves, arm wraps, brown leather boots (made by any type of boot by cutting the tops off) and dark-khaki puttees, and the uniform was completed with a dark-forestland color Cuban Military Style Cap. At first, the men were quite skeptical about this attire since it makes them look dirty but their leaders assured them that it's fine. Heck, their own leader is even wearing an outfit that looks loosely similar to their uniform except there was an 'E' on the center front of the military cap. However, when they thought about it, their uniforms made sense as a way to cope the harsh conditions and as a way of organization in the Emericans besides blending in with the forestland environments of Germania. Due to the dark shading and tone of their uniforms, it's quite hard to spot them in the night due to the additional dark shading of their armor on their uniforms.

Within the group of Emericans, four soldiers early twenties and pre-twenties are walking alongside the other rebel troopers.

"Are we there yet?" one of the young men wielding a VK3 battle rifle said.

"Not really close Edison." the young man wielding another VK3 replied.

The young man, who spoke first, now known as Edison, answered back.

"Can you cut that out Schwaiger?" Edison said.

"What if I don't?" the young man now named Schwaiger asked.

Before Edison can say anything, the third young man in the group interrupted.

"Can you two please stop talking?" a young man by the name of Sal said who is wielding a VM-42 machine gun on his right shoulder.

"Oh Sal, how can you endure the boredom of walking miles and miles of dirt?" Schwaiger asked.

"Well, just walk and ignore everything?"' Sal replied, "Just like David here."

Sal pointed to the fourth young man in their group wielding a scoped VK3 rifle.

"Guys, just keep on walking will you?" David replied when he saw Edison and Schwaiger look at him.

"Whatever." Edison and Schwaiger replied at the same time.

The four young men continued to walk with the rest of the army group to their destination.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at the town of Praugrad…**

**11:44pm…**

Erwin Sydow, a peasant and the Emerican commander in-charge of Praugrad, sat inside his house which now served as the local headquarters for the Emerican forces stationed there. Currently, he is sitting in front of the table in his house with a VK3 battle rifle and a box of 5.45x39mm ammunition is sitting on the top of his table. It's been a week since his hometown, Praugrad, joined the Emericans and he, along with his troops, is up against the Germanian army. Initially, he was skeptical of joining given that they will be up against mages and they are nothing but commoners. However, upon knowing that the Emericans are the ones that carried the successful attack on the garrison base as well as the outpost, his troops immediately joined in. In fact, the troops became enthusiastic when they got hold of these so-called battle rifles and machine guns along with the deadly 88mm guns called the VAM-10s. Add to this is that the Emericans also provided them with artillery known as the artillery gun. These artillery guns had a smaller caliber than the typical cannons but they proved to be more than worth it. This was because these artillery guns performed better than the cannons that they had known so far from warships. The artillery guns may have a small caliber compared to cannons that they knew, but it is more accurate and could fire faster which is very useful in the long run. Add to this is the so-called fragmentation rounds that these artillery pieces can fire which can wound several targets or kill them outright if the shrapnel hit home.

However, the weapons really aren't the main reason why he and most of the people in his town joined the Emericans. He heard that the Emericans are advocating for the freedom of the people from the slavery and injustices done by the corrupt nobility and the rule of every single monarchy in the world. Before the Emericans even appeared, the people had already lost all of their faith in the founder as the troops have committed almost every single atrocity imaginable ranging from taking away the food from many people and leaving them starving and poor, to hanging random people without basis and just because they wanted it which they hid under the founder's name and they didn't suffered any punishment for their atrocious acts. The Emericans on the other hand, introduced the concepts of a federal republic, justice, equality, and human rights among other liberal ideas. These so-called liberal ideas are a promising aspect of a new and better life which he and his troops are prepared to fight to the death. At first, the disenfranchised in his town were the first to join the Emerican ranks. These disenfranchised people are those who lost their loved ones from the sick practices of the Germanian and many other armies and joined to exact their revenge. In fact, some of the disenfranchised were orphans that lost their parents from the monarchies' sick games. Over time, more and more of his town's people joined until she he himself joined in. In fact, it's just a matter of time before every single man, woman, and even children in his town is holding a weapon to boot.

Erwin took hold of the rifle and inspected it. Compared to muskets that he knew, these seem to be more accurate due to the iron sight attached at the rear and the front of the rifle which he could use to take potshots easily unlike muskets. The rifle's cartridges are of good quality as well. Due to the pointed design of the cartridge's tip, it can easily tear through thin plate armor common among the soldiers of the Germanian and many other armies. This gives the Emericans the edge in combat as they can easily kill off any soldier as long as they have a clear view of their targets. Moreover, the stick attached to the muzzle of the rifle called the suppressor is a true marvel on its own as it quiets down the rifle every time it is fired allowing the shooter to remain hidden for a possibility of an indefinite amount of time if the enemy really sucks in scouting. Erwin continued tinkering with the rifle until an Emerican trooper came in.

"Commander, they're here." the trooper said.

Erwin stopped tinkering with the battle rifle and looked at the trooper.

"I understand," Erwin replied, "I'm going to meet them outside."

The Emerican trooper nodded and went out with Erwin following.

Outside, Erwin saw the reinforcements from Salvika stood in a rectangular rank-and-file formation with a clear sign of strict military discipline. The Emerican troopers in formation have the buttstocks of their weapons touched on the ground while their right hands are holding the muzzle of the gun. They also wore what seemed to be a to be a khaki tunic with bellowed hip pockets and khaki breeches, worn with a uniform comprising a dark-forestland green tunic with bellowed hip pockets and dark-forestland green breeches, a forestland facewrap (to allow the troops to be kept comfortable from the elements of the forest), black leather fingerless gloves, arm wraps, brown leather boots (made by any type of boot by cutting the tops off) and dark-khaki puttees, and the uniform was completed with a dark-forestland color Cuban Military Style Cap. A small light backpack of sorts is also behind them which appear to hold the ammunition for their guns and other battlefield supplies.

"Commander, we are the reinforcements sent in to increase the defenses of this town." the Emerican trooper who appears to be in charge of the reinforcements said.

"I see." Erwin replied, "Is there anything that the Herr Sturmbannfuhrer wants?"

"Nothing," the Emerican officer replied, "Except that this town must be kept in Emerican hands at all costs. Herr Sturmbannfuhrer has also sent in more than thirty additional artillery pieces and dozens of artillery ammunition to defend this place. A Germanian attack from Vssen is suspected to be inbound, so the Herr wants this town to be heavily fortified as much as possible. The Herr also tells that more men should be recruited here along with the other town for the revolutionary effort in order to gain the necessary forces needed to take on the Germanian Army."

"Understood," Erwin replied, "So shall we start preparing things up?"

The Emerican officer nodded and instructed the troops to unload the artillery guns from the large caravan of carts and place them at the cliffs overlooking the lower grounds of the town.

The VAM-10 artillery guns are placed in the carts during the transport trip and two of these can fit inside one cart. The Emerican troopers didn't just emplaced the artillery guns as it is. They did surround the artillery guns with sandbags and made makeshift bunkers by heaping sandbags over sandbags. These are done in order to make it harder for the suspected-to-be attacking Germanian Army force to hit them and the artillery. The makeshift bunkers housed the machine gun nests and the purpose of these emplacements is to mow down mages, enemy artillery crews and even dragon riders who will attempt to close in on Praugrad's defense line. The machine gunners also doubled as artillery spotters for the artillery crews as well.

The few houses in the village which happened to be tall enough, at least two story floors high, were also fortified and the upper floors were now converted into machine gun nests to provide overhead gunfire if the dragon knights will really show up. The low ground surrounding the town of Praugrad is completely barren of anything except short grass which made cover completely impossible. This gives the attacking enemy force a real migraine as they won't be able to charge without suffering heavy casualties first. From the cliff occupied by the Emerican forces, they can shoot down any enemy force that shows up. The ramp entrance of the town was also rigged with ammonia traps which will make things even harder for the Germanian Army.

Erwin is busy supervising the fortification of the town. At one point, he helped the troops to set up the artillery guns and the sandbags to speed things up.

Suddenly, four teenagers came up to him.

The four teenagers were Edison, Schwaiger, Sal, and David.

Before the four can call Erwin's attention, Schwaiger asked Sal something.

"Sal, are you sure about this?" Schwaiger asked.

"Of course," Sal replied, "The Herr entrusted us with this mission so we must not fail him."

"Sal is right." David replied, "This is a do or die mission guys."

"Yeah," Edison interrupted, "Let's talk with the commander regarding this already."

-0-

_**Flashback…**_

_**At the village of Odense…**_

_**5:00am…**_

_Edison, Schwaiger, Sal, and David are heading straight for the Herr's quarters as they got word that the Herr wanted to talk with them. They are all nervous to say the least. After all, the person in question is the overall commander of the Emerican forces that they will be talking to._

"_I wonder what will the Herr say to us", Schwaiger said._

"_Well, I just hope we can do the job if it is", Sal replied._

"_Quit it down, the Herr may be hearing us", David interrupted._

_As the four young men neared the door, Edison took hold of the door knob and looked at his friends._

"_Alright guys, here goes nothing", Edison said as he opened the door._

_Edison opened the door and they immediately saw a man wearing clothes that have a dark olive color to his uniform. He looks quite young for a high-ranking commander since he looks about 19 years old. The Herr doesn't even have a beard._

"_Good, you guys are here. Have a seat", James said as the four young men sat on the vacant chairs inside the room, "I want to discuss several matters and you guys will be the ones that will be able to carry it. By the way, I came here personally to inform you guys about the basics."_

"_H__err Sturmbannfuhrer, what can that be?__" Schwaiger asked__a bit surprised seeing that the highest commander of the Emericans went here just to inform them._

"_I heard that you guys tend to travel to Vssen on a daily basis to deliver in various agricultural products like grains and wheat so that means that you are at least customized to how things work there right?"_

"_Yes but how can that concern us with the task you are assigning to us, Herr?", Sal asked._

_James looked at all four of them straight in the eye before speaking._

"_The task that I will assign to the four of you is one thing… Infiltration." James said._

"_You mean go in there and spy on what's going on there?" Edison asked._

"_Smart kid, of course." James said._

"_W-when will we be sent in to Vssen?" Schwaiger asked with a panic in his tone._

"_You'll first go to Praugrad along with the reinforcements that will be sent there and Commander Erwin Sydow will be the one briefing you about it." James replied "Don't worry, you guys just need to say that you were just villagers that managed to 'escape' from the rebels if they ever ask you. I believe their leaders are just a bunch of fools who don't know the meaning of tactics... and deception. Since you always go there and you guys look like villagers, you guys have the perfect alibi."_

"_Any more questions?" James asked._

_The four didn't answer and James dismissed all of them. The four saluted in the Roman Right arm salute before going out of the headquarters._

_**Flashback end**_

-0-

Edison paused for a moment before speaking.

"Commander Erwin", Edison said, "We were the infiltrator team that was assigned with the mission; the Herr has told us that you will be debriefing us regarding Vssen. Can you please fill us with the blanks about it?"

Erwin heard the words and turned around to see four young men in the Emerican uniform and armed with rifles and a machine gun. He thought for a second on seeing these soldiers. For one, they are just as old as his own son who is also aiding in the defense of Praugrad. And two, they look like fresh recruits although they also show signs of meager but reliable combat training.

"Come with me at my headquarters." Erwin said.

The four then followed Erwin back to the latter's home.

-0-

**Meanwhile, inside Erwin's house, Praugrad…**

**12:40pm…**

"Then that's all of it", Ian said as he finished elaborating everything to the infiltrator team.

"So we're going to infiltrate a city that's currently housing a large portion of the Imperial Army, that's pretty tough", Joel commented.

"It may be hard, private", Ian replied, "But it's a task that needs to be done."

"Alright men, you are to leave by two hours from now and you will be not carrying any weapons so as not to compromise your cover for this mission, is that understood?", Ian said.

"Yes, commander", the four said.

Ian dismissed the team afterwards and watched them go out.

As soon as the four young men are now out, Ian just reclined back on his chair and massaged his forehead.

"I hope that everything turns well for them", Ian commented.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at the gate of Vssen…**

**7:00pm, the next day…**

The four young men arrived at the entrance of Vssen after a long ride. However, it is not tiring as they had expected as they brought along with them a cart and a horse which means that they don't have any tired legs just yet.

"Halt!" a Germanian soldier in plate armor and armed with a spear shouted in military tone causing the group's cart to stop. Six more soldiers then stood guard alongside the first one that stopped the group.

"What can I do for you sir?" Sal asked who is holding the horse's reins.

"State where you came from and who you are", the guard replied.

"We're from the village of Praugrad and we just managed to get away from there after the rebels looted our belongings." Sal said.

The guard looked at the group. Clearly, the group of young men in front of him seems to fit what they are saying. They are all wearing simple commoner clothing which implies that they are commoners and their clothes have some cuts and stitched rags. Perhaps they got it when the rebels made fun of them.

"Alright, you could pass." the guard replied as his comrades made way for the group to go in.

The group then went past the gate and inside the city. Just as how they were debriefed, everything went according to plan. The priests in Romalia did side with the Germanian political parties as they all portrayed the rebel group which is the Emericans as the evil side and the government as the good side when it should be the other way around. It didn't sit well with everyone but it did help give them an alibi for this infiltration. However, they are currently unarmed so they are screwed as hell if they are discovered.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Schwaiger asked after sensing that they are now far away from the guards to be heard.

"We need to find a landlord and rent a room." Sal said, "The conditions here probably sliced the rents down due to most of the travelers not going anywhere because of the rebellion so we should have an easy time finding a good room to spend the night in."

As the group drove through the streets of Vssen, Germanian Army soldiers are prowling everywhere. In fact, their numbers seem to have increased a lot due to the likely reinforcements sent in which the Intel reports didn't stated but suggested that will happen. However, the dragon knights are still somewhere at a military fort trying to get ready to get in route to Praudgrad, so there's no serious trouble at the moment. In all respects, the entire city turned from a peaceful city into a giant fortress.

Vssen is one of the largest cities in the east area of Germania. In fact, it is almost as large as Vindobona and it is about 500 miles away from the former-capital of Germania. Being a large city, Vssen houses a large deal of Germania's eastern population with a total of approximately 820,000 inhabitants (compared to 2,000,000 people in Vindobona). That's a big number to say and not to mention the various economic and industrial infrastructures in the city like factories.

In Vssen's city square, the four young men, undercover Emerican spies to be exact, are still roaming around the roadways of Vssen as the still haven't found a single inn to spend the night in after more than 3 hours.

"Damn, why can't we find a single damn inn in this city?" Schwaiger complained.

"Quit complaining Schwaiger." Sal replied as he kept hold of the reins controlling the horse, "At least we don't have those imperial soldiers all around our asses. It's our necks that get's slit if we get discovered."

Sal looked around and relived to see that none of the Germanian Army soldiers are keeping a sharp eye on them. Perhaps it's because of the fact that they are dressed too simply. Currently, the four of them are wearing simple villager clothing except that it's dirty in some portions along with several rag stitches around it. Moreover, they are not carrying anything worth looting in the first place and they all look to be on the impoverished side thanks to their somewhat old-looking and beat-up cart typical of many commoners living in villages and in the countryside.

"Whatever." Schwaiger replied back, "Anyways, we really need to find an inn soon. I don't want to let those suckers see us in the middle of the streets at night."

"Schwaiger is right." David said as he yawned, "We need to get some rest for tomorrow."

"If my guess is right, we need to roam around Vssen by tomorrow and plot all the important locations in this place for reference starting now." Edison said.

"You're right, Edison." Sal said, "But how are we going to send back whatever information we'll obtain especially now?"

Edison just looked up and pointed his pointer finger up in the sky as pigeons flew past overhead the group.

"Edison, are you sure about that?" Schwaiger asked.

Edison simply nodded and the rest knew what it is.

"You're a genius Edison!" David replied.

"Quiet down, David." Kevin said, "We don't want to attract any unnecessary attention."

The group continued on their ride. All around, large stone buildings dominate the scenery. Some of them are likely to cast a shadow during daytime. Moreover, given the large buildings in this city, urban warfare tactics and strategies are the best bet in order to take this city. Besides, fighting inside cities isn't the specialty of the Germanian Army which gives the Emericans an edge since they are trained to fight in situations where the enemy is at a disadvantage.

The group made their way among the streets of Vssen. Soldiers litter the area in large numbers clearly implying that they are strengthening their grip on the city to prevent the rebels from capturing it. Due to all the assets that Vssen contains, letting the city fall to the rebel hands is definitely not an option. If things get too serious, they may opt to burn the city to the ground to prevent the rebels from gaining any strategic and tactical advantage though this would be the last thing they will want to do.

As the group went by, they passed small bunches of city folk walking on the road and most of them have a sign of fear in their eyes. Even though the group didn't approach any of them, they can easily tell that the people are scared. Well, considering the sizeable Germanian Army force stationed in the city right now, it's impossible not to get scared especially when the Germanian Army is notorious for beating down civilians at their discretion usually for just petty things. To further add to the fear, there was sometimes those Germanian political party speeches alongside the street as they did nothing but talk about the need for support and the call of duty to restore Germanian order and all the other crap.

Suddenly, an old man leaning on a stick for supporting himself as he walk slowly suddenly appeared in front of the road where the group's cart is heading causing Sal to pull up the reins so as to prevent the old man from being run over. It was already night so it was hard to see somebody else from a distance and the lamp posts around doesn't seem to have enough illumination to let them group see anything from afar.

"Woah!" Sal exclaimed as he pulled up the reins in time.

The old man, on the other hand, just stood where he is as if he didn't realized that he was just a moment away from being run over. Probably because he is too old that most of his senses have deteriorated through old age.

"Hey old man! What's up with you!" David shouted as he went down the cart and rushed up to the old man to see if there's anything wrong. However, he was shocked when he realized that the old man appears to be deaf.

"W-what?" the old man sputtered slowly as he turned his gaze on David.

"David, the old man seems deaf." Schwaiger said.

David looked at the old man and the latter really is deaf.

Edison went down from the cart and moved towards David and the old man. Once he knows that he is within hearing range of the old man, he spoke.

"Old man, what's with the face of the city folks all around here?" David asked.

"T-the-they are here." the old man said.

"Who's here?" Edison asked.

"Those winged-fire breathing beasts of death, they are here." the old man said.

"_Oh f***._" David thought, "_We need to inform the guys back there about this or they're going to get f***ed._"

"Thanks for the answer old man." Edison said as he signaled David to come back at the cart after guiding the old man to a corner of the street where the old man can't be run over.

Once they are on the cart, Sal whipped the reins causing the horse to move again and pulling the cart in the process.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at a large room of a building, Vsseb…**

**1 hour later…**

"Man, I'm beat!" Schwaiger exclaimed.

"Cut it out Schwaiger, at least we found an inn at last." Sal said as David and Edison heaved up their meager belonging inside the room.

"Anyways, this room is quite large!" Schwaiger said optimistically.

"Yeah, they really have to cut down on costs in order to scavenge what is left." David stated as he looked at every corner of the room.

The room itself has four beds fit for a small group of travelers such as them and has all the needed necessities. Actually, the room is originally rented at a high price but the news of the rebellion and the Germanian political parties' government's lockdown of all the remaining cities and towns at their command made things really worse for travelers as they will not be able to travel due to the lockdown. The inn keepers suffered here as their customers, the travelers, will not be able to come because of this. In order to still earn money, almost every single inn keeper has decided to cut down prices.

David and Edison heaved up their belongings on the beds and started unpacking. For a traveling group, they have all the necessities except that all look crude yet still reliable.

"Okay, how are we supposed to send out a message back at our guys there?" Edison asked.

Before any could respond, the group heard a knock on the window. The group tensed at what it is but they slowly reached for the window and brushed aside the curtain to reveal a pigeon knocking on the window with its beak.

"Geez, it's just a pigeon." David said as he breathed deeply and gazed at the bird.

Edison opened the window causing the pigeon to enter the room. As it landed, the group can clearly see a piece of paper tied to the pigeon's feet.

"Hey, it's carrying something!" Schwaiger said as he pointed his finger on the paper tied to the bird.

Edison untied the paper on the pigeon and unrolled the paper. He then read what's inside.

"So what does it say?" Sal then asked.

"Guys, this is a messenger pigeon." Edison answered as Schwaiger closed the window, "And the paper says that we should write all that we saw in this city and tie it to the pigeon which will then fly back to Praugrad."

"I see." Sal said, "They really backed us up."

"Yeah, let's write everything that we saw here." Schwaiger said enthusiastically.

"Wait, how does that pigeon found us?" David asked.

"Messenger pigeons are specifically trained for this task. Don't ask me. All I know is that these little guys can do their job." Edison explained.

Without any further questions, David wrote all of the Intel report that they mustered which also includes a mention of the dragon knights. This will make their friends in Praugrad better prepared against these winged fire-breathing beasts. As David is writing, Schwaiger grabbed some bread and water then fed the pigeon so it won't get hungry that easily on its flight run to Praugrad.

"Done." David said as he tied the paper carrying the Intel report on the pigeon's leg.

As soon as the paper is tied tightly on the pigeon's leg, Sal opened the window to let the pigeon out.

As the pigeon slowly became smaller from the view, all that they can do is hope and wait that the guys back at Praugrad will do fine. They closed the window and put the curtains back when everything was done.

"Okay guys, we'll be going to do a lot of recon op tomorrow so let's rest." Sal said to the group.

-0-

Meanwhile, at Praugrad…

7:00am, the next morning…

It was a clear sunny day the next day. Everything seems peaceful except for the town of Praugrad. In this town, men armed with rifles and machine guns are making preparations from a suspected Germanian attack force as seen from their movements which comprise mostly of them moving to and fro carrying ammunition for the guns and howitzers. Aside from men, women and children as young as 15 years old are already carrying rifles as well. Due to manpower issues, Erwin Sydow, the Emerican commander of Praugrad, have authorized the recruitment of teens as young as this age in order to aid in the defense of Praugrad. Erwin didn't like this setup but desperate situations require desperate actions…and this situation is a perfect example of it. However, those same people were also given their own sets of armor and steel helmets like the troopers who comprise the Emerican fighting force in order to increase their survivability rate. As of now, the Emerican garrison base of composed of 4,000 men capable of fighting not including the members of the Rear-end squads. This number is thanks to those same women and children that volunteered to take up arms.

As men do their tasks, James is supervising everything with Erwin and Wilhelm accompanying him.

"Mein Herr, why are you here?" Erwin asked.

"I'm here because I personally want to ensure that this place will hold out." James replied, "Besides, having the overall commander in this place will boost up our men's morale isn't it?"

"Yeah I know", Erwin replied, "It's kind of different compared to those egocentric nobles. They just give the order and that's all. They only appear just to show off."

"That's because these bastards are just a bunch of groovy cowards" Wilhelm interrupted causing James and Erwin to look at him.

"Cowards?" Erwin asked with a confused look on his face.

"They send their own soldiers to their deaths while they just lay down comfortably from their fine and dandy horses!" Wilhelm said in anger.

"Don't worry, steady at ease." James said, "Once we win this war, we're going to land the hammer right on them to put the final nail in their coffin."

Ever since James was sent into this world, he became the leader of the Emericans with James as the overall commander and founder of Emerica while the other few trust people assumed commander status. Suffice to say, instead of the ranks from the US military, they assumed high-ranking positions in this Emerican force as a bit more based on the German military rankings.

Just as the three leaders are having a conversation, an Emerican trooper carrying a shovel in addition to his rifle came up to the three and saluted in the Roman Right arm salute.

"Commanders, all of the demo traps have been set at their pre-defined locations and the howitzers are all ready to fire at a moment's notice", the Emerican trooper said.

"Good." James said, "What about the gunners right on the second floors of the houses?"

"They are all locked and loaded, general", the Emerican trooper replied.

"I see." James replied, "Now head back to your post; I want all men ready to fire once the battle commences."

The Emerican trooper saluted before going away. The three leaders then looked at each other before James spoke again.

"Alright, let's go to our posts." James said to which Erwin and Wilhelm knew what it meant.

The three leaders parted ways as they go to their respective areas from which they will give orders to the Emerican troopers stationed there. Wilhelm went up to one of the two-storey houses and was greeted by an Emerican machine gunner crew who saluted when he got up.

"Commander!" the eight men that comprise the gunner crew who are all wearing forest-style camouflage clothing and steel protection (including a hollow-leather vest with thick steel plating inside and a steel plated leather cap) at the top of the house that Wilhelm went up to and greeted him in formal military protocol. Therefore, Wilhelm returned the favor and then asked them about the situation.

"What's the status?" Wilhelm asked.

"We're ready to fire, commander", one of the Emerican troopers said, "The machine guns are all aimed at the sky and we're prepared to gun down all hostile flying targets."

"I see." Wilhelm said as he looked at the place which is fortified by several slabs of steel to shield the gunner crew from the likely incoming attack from the dragon knights stated in the Intel report that came from the infiltrator team that went to Vssen. Wooden boxes holding magazines of machine guns and rifles are also littered around the place.

"Alright, man the guns." Wilhelm said, "Relay this to the other gunners."

One of the men nodded and hurried downwards to inform the other gunner crews about the order. The second storey of the house that Wilhelm went into is located at the center of the town and is also the highest. This gives Wilhelm full view of the area. The town is ringed with several two-storey houses providing a reliable line of cover for the ground forces. This means that the howitzer crews and troopers on the ground can engage the enemy's ground forces without worrying from the dragon knights as the winged beasts will be taken care of by the machine gunners.

From Wilhelm vantage point, he can already see the gunners on the other second floors of the houses cocking their machine guns ready to fire at any hostiles. He smiled with satisfaction as he cocked his own VK3 battle rifle and prepared as well.

Meanwhile, at the ridges overlooking the horizon, James is busy supervising the howitzer crews in preparing the howitzers. The howitzers will not only be firing fragmentation shells but High Explosive shells as well in this battle. The enemy will be packing a lot of men and firepower so they should at least respond with theirs. The fragmentation shells will still be used in an anti-personnel role and this will become evident as the largest portion of the attack force will be comprised of standard foot soldiers that don't have any protection against shrapnel. The high explosive shells will be used in some sort of an anti-armor role. And their primary targets will be the mages and their summons which most likely are golems.

"All men, double time!" James ordered causing the men preparing the howitzers to hasten their efforts.

As the howitzers are being prepared, Erwin is pre-occupied in arranging the men at the ramp connecting the low ground to the high ground of the village in proper battle formations. The plan is to use the natural topographic features of the town in such a way that a force of at least a hundred men can hold off the avalanche of more than six hundred enemy soldiers attacking at once. He watched as the men positioned themselves on the ridgeline of the cliffs which are fortified with sandbags and their guns all aimed towards where the enemy will appear.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at the outskirts of Praugrad…**

**9:00am…**

The Germanian Imperial Army group from has arrived in Praugrad ready to stomp the rebels in one go. With their numbers boasting to an impressive 8,000 fighting men which doesn't include their mages which, in turn, numbers to around 170, the commander of this attack force is confident that the rebels will be mopped down in no time. Aside from the aforementioned manpower, the attack force is also complimented by a group of 110 dragon knights acting as air support.

Mounted atop his dragon, Viscount William Fitzgerald is the one leading the large attack force straight into Praugrad. After several minutes of waiting, he can already see their target town from the horizon… and he can already smell blood as he neared the town. Currently, he is not wearing any serious armor around him for two reasons. One, he already decided that he will just watch the battle from afar relaying orders to his soldiers. And two, none of the enemy can reach him as he will simply cast a fireball at the insolent fool that will dare attack him.

In the next few minutes, Viscount Fitzgerald can already make out of what the things are sticking out off the cliffs. Feeble barricades made of sack and earth, outlines of what seem to be cannons that are even smaller than what the Germanian Imperial Army uses, and rebels pointing their muskets towards them. Viscount Fitzgerald can only smirk either of amusement or pity at the worthless defense that the rebels are putting up.

With a confident smile on his face, Viscount Fitzgerald ordered the attack force to charge in. Scores of men arrayed in rectangular formations charged at full speed towards the village. The attack force consists of mounted cavalry armed with lances and shields with foot soldiers armed with muskets and spears following closely behind. As the men continue to charge, a resounding 'click' was heard beneath the ground that they stepped on and the next thing that happened is a… 'BOOM.'

A violent explosion suddenly erupted from where the soldiers used to stand a moment ago. The explosion sent men flying upwards and flesh with drops of blood began to rain down Aside from that, screams of pain became prevalent throughout the scenery as the soldiers that survived are bleeding badly or losing a part of them as a result. Most of the mutilated body parts were both rotting and burning from the effects of the Chlorine gas on them as they came raining back down onto the ground. Viscount Fitzgerald's smirk was suddenly replaced with that of shock. Just as he was recovering from what happened, another explosion erupted claiming another large chunk of his men. To make matters worse, several explosions simultaneously erupted causing heavy damage to his attack force. All in all, the explosions caused by the ammonia traps claimed about 2,300 of his men.

Viscount Fraser gritted his teeth. How dare those rebels dare use a dishonorable tactic like this? Suddenly, a dragon knight came up to him and spoke.

"Sir, almost a third of our attack force has been wiped out, what are we going to do?" the dragon knight asked.

"Tell the 4th and 5th dragon knight teams to swoop in and blast the rebels from above!" Fitzgerald said, "And have the mages cast golems to act as meat shields now!"

"As you order William." the dragon knight said.

With just a word, 24 dragon knights sped towards the village in an attempt to damage the defense line and allow the main attack force to move in. The ammonia traps produced a thick screen of white smoke and a very violent outbreak of sicknesses upon the troops on the ground when they exploded giving the dragon knights the chance to close the distance without being spotted. But as the dragon knights pass through the smoke, some of them go hurling down to the ground because of the deadly effects of the ammonia gas that the dragon knights inhaled as they were not careful enough to approach the smoke with caution. At the same time, mages began to chant causing the earth to rock violently and raise up which eventually turned into 15-meter golems. The mages then ordered the newly created golems to advance and sweep the ground of any explosives that the rebels might have set up. As the golems moved, several explosions erupted causing some of the golems to stagger and eventually crumble down due to the damage. This only made matters worse, the flames from the explosions were burning the trees nearby and they soon spread back to the road and set off a couple undetonated explosives as not planned. The explosions all together sent 409 other troops to a horrible burning death as the result of the fires detonating a couple undetonated barrels which was not part of the plan and unleash more ammonia gas. The remaining forces of the attack force attempted to charge in, but although, the smoke that ensued caused some difficulty as the thick smoke hindered visibility and so as for the fires plaguing the forest with deadly fire spreads which together slowed the advance dramatically and claimed several other groups of troops who attempted to go around the inferno only to encounter another in the forest.

The dragon knights continued to advance and they managed to get out of the thick screen of smoke. However, what greeted them on the other side did bode well for them. Dozens of musket-armed men were the ones that greeted them with open arms and the word that was shouted sealed them to their doom.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at the defense line of Praugrad at the cliffs…**

**9:20am…**

"Fire!" James barked the order.

Within an instant, hot lead poured into the unlucky group of dragon knights causing them to fall down. Like their leader, none of them are wearing any serious armor in order to ease the load of their dragons as well as give them more maneuverability. However, the lack of armor in this situation cost them their lives. In one salvo, 17 dragon knights simultaneously crashed down. The remaining 4 dragon knights that didn't get hit in the volley unleashed a salvo of fire at once with their riders casting big fireballs. However, the 4 dragon knights that had pass through the chlorine smoke just moments ago suddenly stopped their spells as they started coughing violently before one of knights began leaning forward and falling off his dragon as he died slowly and horribly from the after effects of the chlorine gas. With this stroke of luck from the use of chlorine gas, the dragons alone began hurling down into the defense lines of the Emericans as they began to start feeling the minor effects of the chlorine gas. And the result was more than 45 Emerican troopers were trampled from the falling dragons and only 1 artillery pieces was destroyed. Out of the 45 troops who were trampled, 38 of them survived with minor injuries while the 7 other troops were unlucky and died instantly from the falling dragons.

"Give me the damage report!" James yelled.

"Mein Herr, we have only 7 dead, one artillery piece destroyed, and 38 uninjured." an Emerican trooper said.

"Evacuate the dead if you can." James ordered, "And have the machine gun crews ready to fire. Those dragon knights will be coming up real soon."

"Yes, Herr Sturmbannfuhrer!" the Emerican trooper said before going away.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at the front door of Praugrad…**

**9:30am…**

"All of you scumbags! Hurry up before you have all of us killed!" a mage said as he yelled at the group of commoner infantry and cavalry following him.

The group was having difficulty crossing due to the chlorine smoke so a wind mage casted a wind spell causing the smoke to subside. However, that didn't help; the inferno on the road kept burning viciously because of the forest fueling its flame. As the wind mage continued to make another wind spell, a few hundred troops were coughing violently because of the thickened layer of chlorine gas and dangerous heats that eventually made them suffocate (because of the chlorine reacting with water in the mucosa of the lungs that is creating hydrochloric acid in the soldier's lungs and causing their lungs to be irritated at a lethal level) and die from a slow painful death. As the fire was extinguished, it too however, that didn't turn out to be the best option. The smoke may have been cleared out but more than four dozens of musket-wielding rebels greeted them with the muskets pointed at them. Suddenly, they heard a word.

"FIRE!" Erwin said as the lines of Emerican troopers stationed at the top of the cliff opened fire on the caught-by-surprise Germanian Army group. Most of the men of the Germanian Army group fell dead the moment the hot lead bit their skins. To make matters worse, some of the Emerican troopers are firing their VM-42 machine guns at them causing more damage. But not only was the VM-42s mowing down the troops were causing more damage, but the distinctive 'buzz' sound from the machine guns were horrifically demoralizing the Germanian troops, just like the actual MG-42 back in James' world. But besides the VM-42's horrifying sound, one of the earth mages were successful in casting a spell impaling several of the rebels with a medium-sized earth spike killing them in the process.

However, that didn't last long as well, as several of the rebels responded by firing their specially mounted under-barrel grenade launchers at them. The 25mm high-velocity grenades slammed into the mages disintegrating them into bloody bits of flesh. The remaining Germannian soldiers were brutally mowed down by the rebels like a lawnmower cutting down tall grass out front of a house.

"Commander, first wave destroyed!" an Emerican trooper said as Erwin nodded.

"Good, patch up the wounded and stock on your guns." Erwin replied.

The men who were badly wounded but lucky enough to survive where carried away to safety in order for their wounds to be treated while those that remained checked their ammo reserves and held their positions.

The chlorine smoke generated by the ammonia traps finally subsided allowing the Germanian Imperial Army to advance without hindrance. However, this made them easy to target as well.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at the defense line of Praugrad at the cliffs…**

**9:36am…**

"Mein Herr, the enemy attack force is within range of our howitzers. Requesting permission to fire." an Emerican howitzer crew said.

"Request granted." James replied, "Use the High Explosive shells on the golems. The golems are top priority so open fire on them first. Once they're all down, switch to fragmentation shells and target the enemy's infantry."

"Affirmative Mein Herr." the Emerican howitzer crew replied back.

Within the next few moments, all of the 88mm guns situated on the cliff burst with fire and the High Explosive shells slammed into the slow-moving golems who crumbled down due to the explosion. Some of the shells missed their spot but hit the enemy infantry near the golems causing casualty. As soon as all the golems are down, the artillery crews all changed to fragmentation shells and systematically targeted the tight clusters of enemy infantry. The mages of the Germanian Imperial army we're not able to make a counter-attack as they are not within range not to mention that the enemy is situated atop high ground. This caused them to get pinned down by heavy artillery fire.

-0-

**Meanwhile, from the rear lines of the Germanian Imperial Army group, Praugrad…**

**9:45am…**

"How did this turned out?!" Fitzgerald said angrily as his attack force got hammered by the enemy.

"Damn those bastards!" Fitzgerald snarled, "All dragon knights charge!"

With his war cry filled with anger, the Viscount charged forth with his dragon knights following behind. As soon as he got in range, he casted a large fireball and sent it straight at the line of artillery.

"INCOMING!" an artillery crew said as he shouldered rolled from the artillery gun as fireball came in and blew him out of the way.

The fireball claimed about four more howitzer pieces including twenty five artillery crews who were charred to their deaths. The men who survived, James included, returned fire. The dragon knights accompanying Fitzgerald got shot down by the machine gunner crews holed on the second floors of the houses as the Emerican troopers out in the open started to scatter while firing at the Viscount and his remaining dragon knights. The Viscount saw as his dragon knights got shot down and shred to bits by the rebels' strange muskets which he finally noticed. However, with all the factors considered, Fitzgerald knew very well that he's screwed here. His attack force has been destroyed by a large margin and that is a clear disgrace to him especially if the rebels were to capture him. With no other option available, he charged in through the remains of the smoke with the intent of killing as many of the enemy as he can before being killed. But Fitzgerald was about to suffer the most painful death he could ever imagine as he passed through the remains of the smoke again.

Before he could fly down for another pass, Fitzgerald began to feel nauseated, especially as he felt a burning feeling in his lungs after he passed through the smoke. And before he knew it, he was feeling extremely dizzy the moment he flew down at the rebel defense line again unprepared as his conditions began to get worse and worse by the second. And sooner or enough, he began to vomit into his hands as he leaned forward from the hydrochloric acid that is eating away his lungs and is bringing him to a full silence to prevent him from screaming in pain. And as his last seconds of his life tick away, his hearing finally gives up and starts ringing before a 7.62x51mm bullet pierced the left side of his head and knocking him to the right off his dragon and bringing him to a horrible end.

-0-

**Meanwhile, in one of the second floors of a house, Praugrad…**

**9:45am, moments ago…**

One of the hand-selected marksmen saw a dragon knight who seems to be the enemy leader ready to scoop in on the Emerican troopers so he aimed his VK3 battle rifle at the dragon knight and clicked the trigger.

"Time to die you son of a bitch!" the marksman exclaimed angrily despite his age as he fired a single 7.62x51mm bullet and the dragon knight fell of his dragon as he went plummeting down on the ground. Thanks to the barrel-like rear sights of the VK3 battle rifle, the marksman was able to hit the dragon knight in the left side of the head on the first shot. The Emerican troopers accompanying him also fired at the dragon as the dragon knight went plummeting to his death. And as the dragon knight was several meters away from the ground, the dragon followed its rider down to its death as it became riddle with bullet holes all over its body.

With the dragon knight dead, the marksman breathed deeply and lowered his rifle. The Emerican troopers came up and asked him.

"Sergeant, are you alright?" an Emerican trooper asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The marksman replied.

-0-

**Meanwhile, at Praugrad…**

**10:11am…**

The battle is finally over. The town of Praugrad was successfully defended and so it is still in Emerican hands. However, it did caused the Emericans a number of casualties and some military hardware destroyed. Still, this victory is still a better option.

On the ground where Viscount Fitzgerald lay dead, Emerican troopers circle around the Viscount's dead body which is littered with only a bullet hole going through the left side of his head and out the other side along with the tingeing smell of vomit from his hands. A few moments later, the same Emerican troopers parted in order to make way for the three Emerican leaders currently present at Praugrad.

"Commander Erwin, you know this guy?" James asked.

"Yeah, this is Viscount William Fitzgerald." Erwin said.

"So this bastard is one of them huh?" James asked before he chuckled secretly evil to himself before he continued, "The bastard deserves that kind of death."

Erwin and Wilhelm partially nodded at James' comment before the three decided to go away.

"Haul that body away and burn it along with the dead of the enemy." James ordered, "Detain all of the wounded enemies and juice out whatever information can be obtained from them and salvage whatever weaponry and armor can be recovered."

With that, the three went away as the Emerican troopers lifted up the Viscount's corpse and landed it on a pile of dead bodies. After a few minutes, the Emerican troopers lit the pile of corpse and it was now ablaze after a few moments. With the Emerican's successful defense, this will prove as a dream come true, or as it would come down in history as the birth of Emerica.

-0-

**Author's notes: WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAA! I got say, that has got to be one of my longest chapters yet I have ever written. And there was so much action into this chapter I have to say. And you know, speaking of action, I like to show you the causality rate of both sides in this story.**

**Battle Report**

**Combatants:**  
Emerican Army  
Germanian Imperial Army

**Commanders:**  
Emericans – James, Wilhelm, Erwin  
Germanian Imperial Army – Viscount William Fitzgerald (Killed-In-Action)

**Strength:**  
Emericans – 2,000 troopers and 800 irregulars  
Imperial Army – 8,000 soldiers, 110 mages, and 170 dragon knights

**Casualties:  
**Emericans - 59 dead, 45 wounded, 7 artillery pieces destroyed  
Germanian Imperial Army – Entire attack force destroyed. All survivors are taken as prisoners.

**Anyways though, thanks for reading, if you **_**guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story, please leave a review if you can. Until then, farewell.**_


End file.
